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!

Snowy Owl  - male

Snowy Owl - female

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.

Gray Jay

Red Squirrel

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.