The 3rd annual Friends of Sax-Zim Bog's BRRRRDathon was held Friday-Saturday January 11-12th. The Photothon was held Dec 29 through Jan. 9th.
Weather did not cooperate with RAIN, freezing rain, ICE-covered roads and WIND! Tough conditions! Because of this, the 7 teams came up with a composite of 67 species was 6 fewer than last year. But, the Eagle Optic's Badger Irruption team set a new record with 54 species to win the event (David LaPuma, Eric Wood, Max Henschell, Jessica Gorzo, and Tom Prestby). The one-day event was won by The Egretables—Stephen Bockhold, AnnMarie Geniusz, and Abi Kritzer with 29 species (including 4 spp of owls!). In the Wintergreen division, Team Cold & Green led by Tim Bates, Andrew Webster, Tom Beery and Pat Kohlin bicycled their way to 25 species including the event's only Eastern Bluebird! The Photothon was won by Jan Killian of Spooner, Wisconsin's Northern Lights Photography Club. Winners got their photo taken with Gary the Granite Great Gray...the new non-traveling trophy. See more details and photos here: http://www.saxzim.org/bog-blog/ Highlights: Mute Swan (Ashland, WI) Hooded Mergansers (WLSSD, Duluth) Red-necked Grebe (Lake Superior) Lesser Black-backed Gull (WLSSD, Duluth) Eurasian Collared-Doves (4 along Clover Ln. in Grand Rapids) Great Gray Owl (highlight is that one was found on BLUE SPRUCE ROAD in Sax-Zim...about halfway to feeders) Eastern Bluebird (Duluth) Varied Thrush (one in Mellon, WI and one at Shawn Conrad's feeder in Itasca Co, MN) Bohemian Waxwings (absent from most of NE MN but Shawn Conrad found 1 in Coleraine, 40 near Bovey, MN, 200 in Grand Rapids, and flocks of 7 and 8 in La Prairie, MN) MISSES included Black-backed Woodpecker, Goshawk, Spruce Grouse, Purple Finch. Neither the Barrow's Goldeneye, nor the Slaty-backed Gull were seen during the competition. Please think about joining us next year...It's a frigid blast! Sparky Stensaas 2515 Garthus Road Wrenshall, MN 55797 218.341.3350 cell sparkystens...@hotmail.com www.SaxZim.org ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
