Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

Winter Birding at Sax-Zim Bog: Great Gray Owl

Year 2

The Sax-Zim Bog Visitor Center staff and volunteers met today up at the Bog in preparation for another year of winter birding. However, given the temperatures in the 40’s and minimal snow on the ground, it didn’t feel much like winter.

Most of us birded on the way to and from the bog, and the birds definitely were accommodating. Two Great Gray Owls were spotted. The first GGO’s was seen a bit south of Overton Rd on Owl Avenue around 9:30 am, while the second GGO was seen around 3:00 pm on rt 133 just west of hwy #7.

In addition, gray jays and pine grosbeaks are already visiting the feeders at the Visitor Center, and on the way home Frank and I saw many bald eagles, ruffed grouse and sharp-tailed grouse in addition to the GGO.

The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog look forward to having you visit both the Bog and the Visitor Center this winter. We open for the season this Saturday, December 12th at 10:00 am. Here are a couple of my photographs from this afternoon.

Great Gray Owl
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Sharp-Tailed Grouse
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Sod Bog Building!

Year 2

Yesterday I crossed one item off the “bucket list” … building a sod roof! I often volunteer at the Sax-Zim Bog Visitor Center, and yesterday’s task was to build a sod roof. Our center is now as the commercials say: “New & Improved”! In fact, my wife who is definitely a non birder wrote a great blog post on the subject, and I invited you to browse on over to her blog and read. In addition to her own blog, she writes for Lake Superior Magazine. Put another way, she writes much better than me.

Thus, I’ve provided two photos here … including an image of a ring-necked duck I took before the big “bog building effort”.

Sax-Zim-Bog-Roof-06 Y2-M08-Ring-Necked-Duck

 

In Search of Color on a Gloomy Day (Back Roads to Sax-Zim Bog)

Year 2, ,

Over the past few days I have been exploring back roads in northern Minnesota somewhat near to Duluth. My goal is to be ready for the fall migration and winter birding. During these travels the sun disappeared shortly after dawn two days ago, and it has not made a reappearance. The red fox photo in this post was taken five minutes before the clouds rolled in.

Today, I decided I need to find color to fight against the gloomy skies. Success! Some of my normal haunts yielded up photo ops of birds which stood still enough to let me deal with the long exposure times required. Now … if the sun would just reappear, I can’t wait to revisit the green-winged teal and my favorite wild flower location. Patience!

Finally, one of my explorations yielded a great new route to drive over to Sax-Zim Bog from Duluth. Just before the 36 mile marker on Mn #4 (Rice Lake Road) is the dirt road, Comstock Lake Road. The road is 21 miles long and ends right at Cotton, Minnesota on US #53 directly opposite Arkola Road … a favorite entry into Sax-Zim Bog. Comstock is excellent. From the 7.5 mile point, there is a power line which stretches all the way to Cotton (13.5 miles more of driving). The power line should be great for owling, and the countryside included bogs, heavy forest, and an occasional farm or meadow. This route required an extra 30  minutes to reach Cotton, but I was in beautiful surroundings in “bird friendly environment” my entire drive to Sax-Zim Bog (as opposed to a four lane highway, US #53). I’ve included a map and a photo of a typical scene of Comstock Road.

My own route to get to Comstock was Lester River Road (then a few local roads), Jean Duluth Road, Normanna Road, Rice Lake Road (Mn #4) and finally Comstock Road. This takes one right past the location on Jean Duluth Road I discovered Kelly J last December. Kelly J is a northern hawk owl that hung around till early March.

Last sun … Red Fox at Dawn
Y2-M07-Red-Fox-Breakfast

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Green-Winged Teal
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American Goldfinch
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Comstock Road Map & Typical Scene Along Powerline
Y2-M07-Comstock-Lake-Rd Comstock-Road