Tag Archives: WI North: Richard Bong Airport

Team Vole is in Trouble!

Year 8

I’m not sure which team Snowy was cheering for yesterday evening, but for Team Vole a mistake would surely be deadly (oops … I mean tasty). Our early season viewing of Snowy Owls up here in the Northland continues to be lots of fun. However, tonight’s forecast winter storm with 12 inches of snow will make the Snowy Owls harder to find!

At the ballpark

On the hunt

The Fall Birding Doldrums

Background, Year 8, ,
  • Most of our summer birds have departed the Northland
  • Winter birds from up north have not yet arrived
  • Eternal thick fog seems to have coated the area

In short, the birding opportunities have been few and far between over the past week. Perhaps the only excitement was fixing the bear damage at the new public bird feeders at French River.

Winter birding is just around the corner. Two prime locations near Duluth are Sax-Zim Bog just north of town, and Superior (just across the bridge from Duluth). I recently created two short birding guides for a friend’s business. Folks may enjoy downloading the free PDF’s.

The sun did briefly make an appearance yesterday morning, and I caught this Pileated Woodpecker in flight.

Lady … it’s been fun!

Year 7,
This evening may have been my final evening with “Lady”. This Snowy Owl has been one classy woman, and has treated me to all kinds of enjoyment this winter (thus, her name).
Any day now she should start making 100 mile flights around northern Minnesota as she starts to strengthen her flight muscles for the long migration back up to the Arctic. She may not leave Minnesota till as late as April 1st, but the days of seeing her in its winter hunting territory are numbered.
Hats off to you, Lady!
If you would like to learn more about the migration patterns of Snowy Owls, browse to Project Snowstorm. We hope to start tagging Northern Hawk Owls in the same manner next winter in Sax-Zim Bog (i.e. solar array powered tags which off load daily locations via cell towers … even if the owl is not in reach of cell towers for months at a time … pretty cool).
If you’re still with me, we really don’t know if Northern Hawk Owls just migrate south into northern Minnesota each winter, or do they just disappear deep into the Bog each summer to raise a family?? (maybe some of each … migrants and a few local nesting birds … thus the application of this new banding technology)
Lady … the Snowy Owl

I actually started the day before sunrise in Sax-Zim Bog where I found this rather sleepy Barred Owl. In the second image, she “somewhat” tracks a red squirrel which was running beneath her. Given the limited reaction to easy prey, she must have fed well last night. Instead she was just enjoying basking in the morning sun. It was 8F when I took the photo.