Sunday February 16th was the final day of the festival and despite Saturday's disappointing tour I decided to go ahead and go on the Duluth Tour I had signed up for. This was probably mistake as the roads were clear and Rob & Virginia saw some good birds on their own.
The Duluth trip started with a stop at a feeder - just Black Capped Chickadee and Red-breasted Nuthatch - and a successful Northern Hawk-Owl stake out spot. The Snowy Owl was gone from its spot and although we wandered an area where a Great Grey Owl had been seen we came up empty. Very empty we saw no birds at all, just a totally frozen Lake Superior. We saw a camp of tents out on the ice, wind breaks for ice fishermen. Crow, raven, pigeon and a bald eagle were fly-bys in the morning. We crossed into Wisconsin to visit the Superior dump and found 2 Great Black-backeds and 1 Glaucous among many Herring Gulls and then stopped at Duluth's Canal Park for a small patch of open water with Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser and Mallards. A pretty dismal return for a planned tour!
I did an afternoon dash to the Sax-Zim Bog driving McDavitt once and Admiral three full times and once more from the south end to the feeders and back, I saw a perched crow, one Gray Jay and one Northern Shrike as well as 7 Black-capped Chickadees on each pass of the feeders. What I did not see, of course, was a Great Grey Owl. At least 7 other cars were doing the rounds in search of this bird.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Lake County Field Trip
On Saturday February 15th I went on the festival's trip to Lake County. One of the trip leaders had scouted the route ahead of time and in a posting on the listserve, said that birds were few and far between. This is exactly how things turned out and it is surprising that the trip wasn't adjusted.
I left my motel in Hibbing at 4:30 in order to be at Meadowlands for 5:30 bus boarding and 6:00 departure. We then drove at speed to get to Lake County and having reached a road where we hoped for Spruce Grouse continue to drive very quickly. A walk down the road followed by a stop at an Outward Bound camp to use their restrooms meant we reached 9:30 with just ravens and feeder birds to show for out time. We finally founds some birds in Ely - 100 miles from Meadowlands- but with the exception of an earful of Bohemian Waxwings, we added only bird feeder band feral rock pigeons to our list.
After driving to Sax-Zim Bog we cruised around, making two passes down Admiral Road hoping to relocate a Great Grey Owl seen earlier in the day. Although we had no luck with that we saw a total of three Ruffed Grouse and watched a Stoat (Short-tailed Weasel) in Ermine form dashing around in the snow so that only the black tip of its tail was obvious.
I left my motel in Hibbing at 4:30 in order to be at Meadowlands for 5:30 bus boarding and 6:00 departure. We then drove at speed to get to Lake County and having reached a road where we hoped for Spruce Grouse continue to drive very quickly. A walk down the road followed by a stop at an Outward Bound camp to use their restrooms meant we reached 9:30 with just ravens and feeder birds to show for out time. We finally founds some birds in Ely - 100 miles from Meadowlands- but with the exception of an earful of Bohemian Waxwings, we added only bird feeder band feral rock pigeons to our list.
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| Bohemian Waxwing |
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| Black-capped Chickadee |
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| Downy Woodpecker |
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
After driving to Sax-Zim Bog we cruised around, making two passes down Admiral Road hoping to relocate a Great Grey Owl seen earlier in the day. Although we had no luck with that we saw a total of three Ruffed Grouse and watched a Stoat (Short-tailed Weasel) in Ermine form dashing around in the snow so that only the black tip of its tail was obvious.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Sax-Zim Bog
I flew to Duluth on Wednesday February 12th paying a visit to the University of Minnesota -Duluth ahead of participating in the 7th Sax-Zim Bog Birdinf Festival, On Friday February 14th I attended a pre-festival field trip to the Sax-Zim Bog.
I had registered in November and by the time the trip came around I knew that two of my targets were out of reach. It was not an invasion year of Boreal Owls and White-winged Crossbills had not been seen. My four main targets were my final North American woodpecker - Black-backed, and three owls - Snowy, Northern Hawk and Great Grey.
I left Hibbing at 5:30 for bus-boarding at 6:30 and departure at 7:00 and the trip began with lifer Pine Grosbeaks at the first house with feeders and then a male Snowy Owl atop a conifer tree. We had a second male on a tree line and then a female on the roof of a house!
After a quiet period including no-show Great Grey Owl on Admiral road we did find two Boreal Chickadees at the feeders there and later in the day on a second pass down the road we had four Gray Jays - my first outside of Alaska. Red Squirrels were common on many feeders throughout the day. On our third pass down the road by the Visitor Center we finally found a Northern Hawk-Owl.
The trip ended around 2:30 but there was nothing planned until dinner at 5:00. A couple I had met on the bus, Rob from Kent and Virginia from Tucson invited me to come along with them and we spent two hours cruising the roads dipping again on Great Grey Owl and Rob's wished fro Northern Saw-whet Owl, but we got lucky and ran into a group of people who had just located a Black-backed Woodpecker. ABA area woodpecker number nineteen to complete my list.
I had registered in November and by the time the trip came around I knew that two of my targets were out of reach. It was not an invasion year of Boreal Owls and White-winged Crossbills had not been seen. My four main targets were my final North American woodpecker - Black-backed, and three owls - Snowy, Northern Hawk and Great Grey.
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| Snowy Owl - male |
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| Snowy Owl - female |
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| Gray Jay |
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| Red Squirrel |
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| Northern Hawk-Owl |
The trip ended around 2:30 but there was nothing planned until dinner at 5:00. A couple I had met on the bus, Rob from Kent and Virginia from Tucson invited me to come along with them and we spent two hours cruising the roads dipping again on Great Grey Owl and Rob's wished fro Northern Saw-whet Owl, but we got lucky and ran into a group of people who had just located a Black-backed Woodpecker. ABA area woodpecker number nineteen to complete my list.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Verde Valley Loop
On Saturday February 8th with my wife in Malaysia I decided to have a day of crazy chasing. I looked at my 2014 Birdlist and came up with a list of 10 birds that it could be possible to get in a long morning in the Verde Valley. Vic was free and joined me on my chase.
We started at Red Tank Draw and had no problem finding Sage Thrasher and Black-throated Sparrow. Indeed both these species were present in large numbers. We then went to the v-bar-v Heritage Site and watched the feeders until a (Tan-striped) White-throated Sparrow came in. At that point I was at 100% and it was only 10am.
The rest of the day went badly; the Rock Wren again failed to show at Montezuma Well, we did not run into any Cedar Waxwings or Juniper Titmice and the pond at LoLoMai was duckless. I thought Wood Ducks were guaranteed there. Also at LoLoMai we went looking for a Western Screech Owl but the bird was not sitting outside his hole waiting for us. The two Common Gallinules on the east side of Pond 2 at the Sedona Wetlands Preserve seen that morning by Rich on his birdwalk stayed hidden in the reeds. And then finally the Cave Springs area was full of vehicles and we could not even try for the American Dipper. So I ended on just 30%.
The day's most surprising sighting was a River Otter in the pond at Lo Lo Mai. I had expected to run into this animal before now with so much time spent waling along the Verde River and Oak and Beaver Creeks but I never had any luck. The only bad luck this day was that my camera had been left in Fanta.
We started at Red Tank Draw and had no problem finding Sage Thrasher and Black-throated Sparrow. Indeed both these species were present in large numbers. We then went to the v-bar-v Heritage Site and watched the feeders until a (Tan-striped) White-throated Sparrow came in. At that point I was at 100% and it was only 10am.
The rest of the day went badly; the Rock Wren again failed to show at Montezuma Well, we did not run into any Cedar Waxwings or Juniper Titmice and the pond at LoLoMai was duckless. I thought Wood Ducks were guaranteed there. Also at LoLoMai we went looking for a Western Screech Owl but the bird was not sitting outside his hole waiting for us. The two Common Gallinules on the east side of Pond 2 at the Sedona Wetlands Preserve seen that morning by Rich on his birdwalk stayed hidden in the reeds. And then finally the Cave Springs area was full of vehicles and we could not even try for the American Dipper. So I ended on just 30%.
The day's most surprising sighting was a River Otter in the pond at Lo Lo Mai. I had expected to run into this animal before now with so much time spent waling along the Verde River and Oak and Beaver Creeks but I never had any luck. The only bad luck this day was that my camera had been left in Fanta.
Prescott
Following the cancellation of the plan to go to Lake Havasu, on Saturday February 1st my wife and I decided to go to Prescott instead. We took the opportunity to stop at Lake Montezuma on the way down to look for the Eastern Bluebirds that had been seen a few days earlier. We were in luck and found 3 of this species in the trees by the duck feeding area. The ducks included a tame Snow Goose and four non-countable Egyptian Geese!
The next stop was at Montezuma Well where I had hoped to get both wrens but although the Rock Wren did not cooperate I found a few Brewer's Sparrows along with the Canyon Wren.
We then headed to Willow Lake in Prescott and were able to spot the Tundra Swan before we got out of Fanta. We wandered down towards the lake and enjoyed lots of ducks and a Northern Harrier. But we had given up on the White-tailed Kite before asking a local (Ryan) who took us straight to the bird perched closer to homes and away from the lake itself.
Our final stop of the day was at Watson Lake where after some searching we were able to find a pair of Hooded Merganser. Sadly while heading back to the car I lost the eyepiece of my Nikon Prostaff spotting scope although I did not notice it was missing until we were back in Flagstaff.
The next stop was at Montezuma Well where I had hoped to get both wrens but although the Rock Wren did not cooperate I found a few Brewer's Sparrows along with the Canyon Wren.
We then headed to Willow Lake in Prescott and were able to spot the Tundra Swan before we got out of Fanta. We wandered down towards the lake and enjoyed lots of ducks and a Northern Harrier. But we had given up on the White-tailed Kite before asking a local (Ryan) who took us straight to the bird perched closer to homes and away from the lake itself.
Our final stop of the day was at Watson Lake where after some searching we were able to find a pair of Hooded Merganser. Sadly while heading back to the car I lost the eyepiece of my Nikon Prostaff spotting scope although I did not notice it was missing until we were back in Flagstaff.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Around town
As the end of the month neared I decided to do some chasing. Jason had found a Varied Thrush at Elden Spring on Saturday 25th and I tried three times for this bird over the next few days.
On my first attempt on Sunday 26th I had no thrush but saw two immature Golden Eagles soaring above the hills. I then drove out to the Kachina Wetlands to add Lesser Scaup to my year's list. The wetlands are usually bleak and frozen in January but following a month without snow the water was open and there was a good variety of ducks on the water, including two Cinnamon Teal, a rare bird above the rim in winter. I also found a Mountain Bluebird among the Eastern Bluebirds perched on the mullen.
On Thursday January 30th I headed out to Doney Park for an hour or so in the morning. After hiking up a quiet Old Caves Crater trail, I drove to Pam's old neighborhood and ran into a flock of 110 Pinyon Jays with 40 Red-winged Balckbirds mixed in. Heading out to Townsend-Winona, I saw a Ferruginous Hawk hunting, and then being harrassed by a raven on the ground. Late that day I made my second visit to a cold and grey Elden Spring and saw very little
On Friday January 31st I began the day at Picture Canyon where I had no trouble finding a Song Sparrow for my year's list. I then met up with Tom, BB, Rich and Nanette at Elden Spring where we searched for the Varied Thrush in the sleet - Flagstaff's first precipitation for 6 weeks. Sadly the group found the bird soon after I left! Worse still I had left because my wife and I had planned to go to Lake Havasu, but we aborted this plan when the snow got heavy and we could hear sirens from emergency vehicles!
On my first attempt on Sunday 26th I had no thrush but saw two immature Golden Eagles soaring above the hills. I then drove out to the Kachina Wetlands to add Lesser Scaup to my year's list. The wetlands are usually bleak and frozen in January but following a month without snow the water was open and there was a good variety of ducks on the water, including two Cinnamon Teal, a rare bird above the rim in winter. I also found a Mountain Bluebird among the Eastern Bluebirds perched on the mullen.
On Thursday January 30th I headed out to Doney Park for an hour or so in the morning. After hiking up a quiet Old Caves Crater trail, I drove to Pam's old neighborhood and ran into a flock of 110 Pinyon Jays with 40 Red-winged Balckbirds mixed in. Heading out to Townsend-Winona, I saw a Ferruginous Hawk hunting, and then being harrassed by a raven on the ground. Late that day I made my second visit to a cold and grey Elden Spring and saw very little
On Friday January 31st I began the day at Picture Canyon where I had no trouble finding a Song Sparrow for my year's list. I then met up with Tom, BB, Rich and Nanette at Elden Spring where we searched for the Varied Thrush in the sleet - Flagstaff's first precipitation for 6 weeks. Sadly the group found the bird soon after I left! Worse still I had left because my wife and I had planned to go to Lake Havasu, but we aborted this plan when the snow got heavy and we could hear sirens from emergency vehicles!
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