This morning with a friend, I birded Sax-Zim Bog. We started about 7:25am on County Road 7, and birded until about 1:00pm. What a wonderful day of birds today! While at the rib-cage/birdfeeding area, there were easily 50+ Common Redpolls, and one HOARY REDPOLL. Two absolutely gorgeous Northern Hawk Owls were seen. There's lots of other cool sightings, and here's my bog list from today...
Sax-Zim Bog Bald Eagle (1) Northern Hawk Owl (2) Black-billed Magpie (2) Blue Jay Gray Jay (3) Common Raven Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Black-capped Chickadee Common Redpoll Hoary Redpoll (1) White-winged Crossbills (2) Pine Grosbeak (4) I identified the Hoary as soon as I saw the field marks... This bird, while feeding on the ground with the other Redpolls, and showed a slightly pale-flushed face, with literally a 'hint' of pale gray marks on the side flanks (sides). The flanks of this bird initially looked pure snow white, until I focused on it for a second more, and saw a few very pale gray specks. As soon as this bird turned away, a snow-white rump was visible. Also as it turned away, the folded wings were noticably paler gray than the nearby Common Redpoll's folded wings (Common Redpolls tend to show a slate/black wings, whereas the Hoary Redpoll's wings appear more of a 'bleached' slate gray color). This is the third Hoary Redpoll I've ever seen, and I've found that it's good to look for that frosty/pale overall appearance of the bird's body (of course, note the specific field marks to make sure everything is in check for a Hoary Redpoll, and not a pale Common Redpoll). After I got back to Duluth, I decided to head over to Canal Park, and just enjoy a brief afternoon of looking for birds there. I saw: Canal Park Rock Pigeons Glaucous Gull (1 flyover, and that's it for gulls today) Bald Eagle (1) Common Goldeneyes Mallard Thanks everyone for assisting me with recently seen sightings. Based on the recently observed sightings that were forwarded to me in the bog, the White-winged Crossbills were new, as well as one of the Hawk Owls... Let me know if you're headed up to the bog sometime, and I'd be glad to backchannel the locations to ya :) Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN birdf...@hotmail.com www.pbase.com/birdfedr/naturallyavian ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
