Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

Migrational Pause

Year 9, ,

The winds have switched strongly from the south (30+ mph) and the southern migration has stalled out. Birds are much more frantic during the spring migration to reach prime breeding territories and lay a claim to a prime area. In the Fall, without this need, one waits for a nice tailwind.

Thus, I am finding some of the same birds in the countryside. While wild turkeys don’t migrate and seeing one or two used to be unusual, I saw over 250 turkeys feeding in fields bordering forests yesterday morning! Turkey Vultures are also now pushing south when favorable conditions are present.

Here are a few pics from the last two days …

Wild Turkeys Galore (Sax-Zim Bog)

Eastern Phoebe (Northstar Lake)

Turkey Vulture Drying Off from the Morning Ground Fog (Sax-Zim Bog)

Broad-Winged Hawks (Pine-Island State Forest)

Belted Kingfishers (Pine-Island State Forest)

Sax-Zim Bog Birding Bonanza

Year 9,

Birding had been slow over the past week. Weather conditions just had not encouraged birds north of Minnesota to start south, but did that ever change around noon yesterday when the winds rose to 30 mph out of the NW. Just like when bicycling, you realize how much easier it is to ride with a strong tailwind. Birds understand wind and how to make migration much easier … tailwind good | headwind bad. Man alive, were there birds in the Bog this morning when I arrived just after sunrise. However, I was expecting to see lots of birds due to BirdCast! This real-time tool from Cornell and other organizations monitors migration data for one’s specific location in the continental United States. Here is the map for today, Tuesday, August 30th. NE Minnesota was a migration hotspot last night.

When I entered St. Louis County in BirdCast, in which Duluth and Sax-Zim Bog (my home) are located, it yielded this data … two screenshots of what happened last night! Over 10 million birds flew through my county last night! Uff dah!

Want to learn more about BirdCast? See my post from last year on this superb birding service. I explain how to use BirdCast with detailed examples. Regardless, I saw lots and lots of birds this morning, but that fast did NOT surprise me. The biggest migrating bird species I saw were Yellow-Shafted Flickers. On the raptor front, I saw an amazing number of Northern Harriers … in fact five in just one field south of Meadowlands (Andrews Road).

A few pics from this morning …

Broad-Winged Hawk

American Kestrel

Canada Jay

Black-Billed Magpie

Merlin

Yellow-Shafted Flicker

Sax-Zim Bog Ground Fog Raccoons

Year 9

Two mornings ago I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog (only a 45 minute drive) knowing that heavy ground fog was in the offing. I actually love visiting the Bog on mornings with heavy ground, and try to time my arrival to just about when I think the fog will start to burn off. My experience shows that I often find mammals or birds out in the open … hoping to dry off … or just find food that was impossible to see earlier in the dark, damp conditions. In addition days with ground fog tend to have very calm wind conditions.

This morning I found three juvenile Raccoons walking calmly down McDavitt Road. My presence was not concerning. I stopped and turned off my car a long distance off,  and let the youngsters walk towards me (video link for email subscribers).

I normally don’t like to post Northern Lights warnings, but the forecast for tonight, Wednesday August 17th is fantastic. Please note that Northern Lights forecasts are notoriously horrible. Learn more from the Northern Lights page of my blog. The times noted on this screenshot which was taken about 10:30 am are CDT.