Tag Archives: MN North: Greenwood Forest Fire Area

ChicagoLand Sax-Zim Bog Birding Presentations (by me!)

Background, Year 9

Coming soon to a ChicagoLand Birding Club … me! Yup, this November I will be the guest presenter at two of the Chicago area’s birding clubs: the DuPage Birding Club and the Kane County Audubon Society. Attending is free, and I have donated my time. My primary topic will be Sax-Zim Bog which is where I am a volunteer naturalist. In lieu of the fee often paid to presenters both clubs have graciously agreed to make a donation to the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog! Here are the basic presentation details:

  • Wednesday,  November 9th at 7 pm
    • Kane County Audubon – St. Charles, Illinois
    • Details (follow link)
  • Thursday, November 10th at 7 pm
  • Presentation Outline
    • For both nights … via Google Docs
    • Not all sections will receive equal time and emphasis

While the majority of my presentation will focus upon Sax-Zim Bog, I will briefly touch on some of my other favorite winter birding locations for that individual who wants to be far from the madding crowd … such as the Stony River Forest Road (image taken early this morning just after sunrise).

And of course the star of Sax-Zim Bog … our year round native, the Great Gray Owl!

For those who want to see some of my own bird images, I invite you to take a look at a few of my own photo albums.

 

Stony River Forest Road Bike Ride

Year 9,

When a south wind was blowing warmly, I knew I had to enjoy one of the last mild afternoon in Northwoods. I drove up to Stony River Forest Road, and parked eight miles in along a the dirt road … and biked from that point. The colors and birding were great. I decided to take photographs and videos to better demonstrate how the firebreak constructed for last year’s Greenwood Forest Fire has helped nature’s rebirth. One now finds a 20 mile long 100 / 125 yard never ending meadow / bog next to the road … and wildlife loves it!

The Starting Location for my Ride (8 miles from the nearest paved road)

Two Short Videos … my ride (video links for email subscribers: one | two)

A Spruce Grouse with whom I had a stare-down!

While driving home, I always swing through Two Harbor’s Lakeview Cemetery. One will often find migrating geese and songbirds. In addition to lots of Canada Geese, I found four Cackling Geese and one Snow Goose yesterday. Both bird species had been pushed west off their normal migration paths by strong winds. Here is a breeding map from Cornell for Snow Geese which I further annotated to also include the Cackling Goose. As you may see, the recent goose migration arrivals come from the Arctic Ocean.

Cackling Goose (not a Canada Goose … much smaller and a different physique)

Snow Goose

Spruce Grouse in a Spruce

Year 9

Moose were not the only wildlife I saw yesterday. This birding season continues to be amazingly good in terms of seeing Spruce Grouse (normally very hard to find). Yesterday I saw two Spruce Grouse, and unlike on other birding outings, I scared these birds on purpose. While I am not anti-hunting, I knew there were some grouse hunters about two miles behind me on Stony River Forest Road, and I did not want the spruce I had found getting plugged.

Amazingly this particular Spruce Grouse did NOT want to be scared. In the first image I am only three feet from the bird, and it would not spook / fly.

Finally by my jogging towards the bird I convinced it to fly up into a nearby spruce tree. I took a few more images (see below), and once again had to walk within three feet to convince the bird to fly DEEP into the forest. Go figure?? You can tell the grouse is watching me!

This morning I checked berries and crabapples. While I did not expect to find many birds yet at my favorite “fruit haunts” going up the shore from my house into Two Harbors, and inland, I was very curious to learn the status of this year’s Mountain Ash and Ornamental Crabapple crop. The answer is unlike last year when a late frost killed much of the fruit, we have a great crop in 2022. Thus, soon it will be time to find birds migrating south into my area with the goal of eating fruit this winter!