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I was with a group of eight birders from the Chicago area who visited the Duluth area from January 8 to 11. We enjoyed the nice birds, the beautiful scenery, and the wonderful hospitality of the Duluth birding community. On Friday the 9th, we visited the Sax-Zim area. Birds we saw there were * BALD EAGLE - 2 * NORTHERN GOSHAWK - 1 adult (Owl Ave.) * ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK - 2 * DOWNY WOODPECKER - 2 * HAIRY WOODPECKER - 6 * BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER - 1 (Admiral Road) * NORTHERN SHRIKE - 1 (CR 133, 5 miles west of CR 7) * GRAY JAY - 5 * BLUE JAY - 4 * BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE - 3 (one on SR 29 at the house with feeders a couple of miles south of Correction Line Road, two on SR 7 near Kelsey) * COMMON RAVEN - 27 * BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE - 79 * BOREAL CHICKADEE - 8 (five along north end of Owl Ave., three on Stickney Rd.) * RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH - 1 * WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH - 4 * PINE GROSBEAK - 18 (11 on SR 29 at the house with feeders south of Correction Line Rd., seven at the house with feeders at CR 380 and SR 7) * RED CROSSBILL - 1 (Owl Ave.) * WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL - 5 (two at SR 133 at US 53, and three on Owl Ave.) * COMMON REDPOLL - 71 * HOARY REDPOLL - 1 (at the house with feeders on SR 29 south of Correction Line Rd.: a larger, very white redpoll, with apparantly no undertail streaking, a clean white rump, rather white back with brown streaking, seen perched overhead through binoculars and seen through a scope while under the feeders) Don Kienholz treated us to his HOARY REDPOLL later in the day. On Saturday, January 10 we drove up the relatively birdless Lake County Road 2. Best birds were two GREAT GRAY OWLS at 7:35AM perched on a pole and traffic sign 0.9 miles south of the Christianson Lake Road (about eight to nine miles south of CR 15). We also had a RUFFED GROUSE a couple of miles south of there. Along SR 1 we had a smattering of PINE GROSBEAKS and COMMON REDPOLLS, a few GRAY JAYS and reasonable numbers of chickadees and a few woodpeckers and nuthatches, but the bird life was pretty slim. In Two Harbors on the 10th we had two NORTHERN SHRIKES, RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS, and plenty of Redpolls. There were no unusual ducks or gulls (though two adult RING-BILLED GULLS) at Agate Bay while we were there. We ended the day at Peavey in Superior, WI where we saw an adult, gray morph GYRFALCON carry some wriggling prey out on the ice to devour (this was at 4:15 to about 4:45PM). The bird flew in right over our heads. We headed back south to Chicago on Sunday the 11th, visiting the NORTHERN HAWK-OWL in Burnett County on the way back. We also made stops south of Solon Springs in Douglas County, WI on the way to the Hawk-Owl as well as on our way up last Thursday. This is along US 53 at CR M. One mile north of M and a mile and a half west of US 53 is Mead Church Rd, where we had a flock of 41 SNOW BUNTINGS. Along Flowage Road a mile and a half south of M and two miles west of US 53 we stopped at some feeders where there were quite a few woodpeckers, jays, etc. The Wilson's, who live on this road, reported to us that they have PINE GROSBEAK and EVENING GROSBEAK coming to their feeders, though not every day. We spotted 11 RED CROSSBILLS in some conifer trees near this location, too. Geoff Williamson Chicago, IL geoffrey.william...@comcast.net Geoffrey A. Williamson geoffrey.william...@comcast.net --=====================_9201276==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> I was with a group of eight birders from the Chicago area who visited the Duluth area from January 8 to 11. We enjoyed the nice birds, the beautiful scenery, and the wonderful hospitality of the Duluth birding community.<br><br> On Friday the 9th, we visited the Sax-Zim area. Birds we saw there were <ul> <li>BALD EAGLE - 2 <li>NORTHERN GOSHAWK - 1 adult (Owl Ave.) <li>ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK - 2 <li>DOWNY WOODPECKER - 2 <li>HAIRY WOODPECKER - 6 <li>BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER - 1 (Admiral Road) <li>NORTHERN SHRIKE - 1 (CR 133, 5 miles west of CR 7) <li>GRAY JAY - 5 <li>BLUE JAY - 4 <li>BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE - 3 (one on SR 29 at the house with feeders a couple of miles south of Correction Line Road, two on SR 7 near Kelsey) <li>COMMON RAVEN - 27 <li>BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE - 79 <li>BOREAL CHICKADEE - 8 (five along north end of Owl Ave., three on Stickney Rd.) <li>RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH - 1 <li>WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH - 4 <li>PINE GROSBEAK - 18 (11 on SR 29 at the house with feeders south of Correction Line Rd., seven at the house with feeders at CR 380 and SR 7) <li>RED CROSSBILL - 1 (Owl Ave.) <li>WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL - 5 (two at SR 133 at US 53, and three on Owl Ave.) <li>COMMON REDPOLL - 71 <li>HOARY REDPOLL - 1 (at the house with feeders on SR 29 south of Correction Line Rd.: a larger, very white redpoll, with apparantly no undertail streaking, a clean white rump, rather white back with brown streaking, seen perched overhead through binoculars and seen through a scope while under the feeders) </ul>Don Kienholz treated us to his HOARY REDPOLL later in the day.<br><br> On Saturday, January 10 we drove up the relatively birdless Lake County Road 2. Best birds were two GREAT GRAY OWLS at 7:35AM perched on a pole and traffic sign 0.9 miles south of the Christianson Lake Road (about eight to nine miles south of CR 15). We also had a RUFFED GROUSE a couple of miles south of there. Along SR 1 we had a smattering of PINE GROSBEAKS and COMMON REDPOLLS, a few GRAY JAYS and reasonable numbers of chickadees and a few woodpeckers and nuthatches, but the bird life was pretty slim.<br><br> In Two Harbors on the 10th we had two NORTHERN SHRIKES, RED-BELLIED WOODPECKERS, and plenty of Redpolls. There were no unusual ducks or gulls (though two adult RING-BILLED GULLS) at Agate Bay while we were there.<br><br> We ended the day at Peavey in Superior, WI where we saw an adult, gray morph GYRFALCON carry some wriggling prey out on the ice to devour (this was at 4:15 to about 4:45PM). The bird flew in right over our heads.<br><br> We headed back south to Chicago on Sunday the 11th, visiting the NORTHERN HAWK-OWL in Burnett County on the way back. We also made stops south of Solon Springs in Douglas County, WI on the way to the Hawk-Owl as well as on our way up last Thursday. This is along US 53 at CR M. One mile north of M and a mile and a half west of US 53 is Mead Church Rd, where we had a flock of 41 SNOW BUNTINGS. Along Flowage Road a mile and a half south of M and two miles west of US 53 we stopped at some feeders where there were quite a few woodpeckers, jays, etc. The Wilson's, who live on this road, reported to us that they have PINE GROSBEAK and EVENING GROSBEAK coming to their feeders, though not every day. We spotted 11 RED CROSSBILLS in some conifer trees near this location, too.<br><br> Geoff Williamson<br> Chicago, IL<br> geoffrey.william...@comcast.net<br><br> <br> <x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep> Geoffrey A. Williamson<br> geoffrey.william...@comcast.net<br> </html> --=====================_9201276==_.ALT--