Forwarded with permission... ____________________________ Debbie Waters Education Director Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory P.O. Box 3006 Duluth, MN 55803-3006 218.428.3539 dwat...@hawkridge.org www.hawkridge.org
Donate to support our Raptors in the Classroom program. We need your help! "I'm an early bird and I'm a night owl, so I'm wise and I have worms." - Michael Scott, The Office -----Original Message----- From: wisbirdn-bou...@freelists.org [mailto:wisbirdn-bou...@freelists.org] On Behalf Of Brian Hansen Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 6:21 PM To: wisbi...@freelists.org Subject: [wisb] Sax Zim long trip report w/photos Hi All, Dave Freriks and I took a few days off and headed to Sax Zim Bog in northeaster Minnesota. This is a trip I have wanted to make for a while and it didn't disappoint. Our main target birds to photograph were Great Gray Owl, Northern Hawk Owl, Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Spruce Grouse, 1 We left Milwaukee Saturday 2/6 about 7 PM and arrived in Duluth about 12:30 AM. After storing our gear and a couple hours sleep we were at Sax Zim for sunrise. Our guide that we had scheduled for the day no showed after booking a month ago and confirming a few days before, so we pretty much had to wing it. We bought a gazetteer and started driving around. One huge tip if you're going, the Minnesota Gazetteer shows mostly state road names. The roads at Sax Zim are for the most part locally named so it can be confusing. I would suggest something more specific to birding. We found one feeder by accident and then ran into a birder from Illinois who gave us the locations of three other feeding stations. The one we found was on Swenson about 4 miles northeast of Meadowlands. We had 6 Evening Grosbeaks in a tree plus Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins and Am Goldfinches. BC Chickadees were everywhere by the dozens. Dave (hawkeye as he has come to be known) spotted a Northern Shrike about a mile from the road across a huge clearing. That was a mile or so south of Sax on Stickley. He then found 8 White-winged Crossbills feeding on Tamarack seeds at the far west end of Zim Road. We drove around and found MacDivit road which I recognized from an email that Dan Jackson sent me. A farmer who was cutting wood walked out to the middle of the road and stood there to stop us. Hmmm. We stopped and he went into a rant about people putting deer carcasses out. He said they attract predators especially wolves. Not exactly the head of welcoming committee to this weekend"s festivities. We made our way over to the feeding station on Admiral rd which is located about 2 1/2 miles north of Sax. We had much of the same birds as the first but added Purple Finches, 1 RB Nuthatch plus a Downy and a Hairy WP. We headed back down to Sax and found our first Northern Hawk Owl basically on the corner of Cranberry Ln and Sax. It flew towards us and put on a pretty good show as it was visually hunting and preening. We got a few shots and headed back exhausted from lack of sleep. In between all this we had lunch at the Rocket Cafe in Meadowlands. It was really good - actually one of the best burgers I have had in a long time. Day 2 Monday - We headed back to Sax Zim at sunrise. Our first stop was the feeding station on Arkola Road. It is north of the town of Meadowlands about a mile east of Owl Avenue. There were 20 or so Pine Grosbeaks at and around the platform feeder. They were bickering and jockeying for position on the feeder. Then a few Gray Jays moved in and took over on the suet and platform feeder. As usual there were BC Chickadees flying in and out. We went over to Stone Lake Road and found a Northern Hawk Owl about half mile east of Hwy 7. We had lunch at the Rocket Cafe again and headed over to admiral rd. We finally found our first Boreal Chickadees. There was a pair that was coming to the suet/deer carcass every 15 minutes or so. It was nice to hear them calling amongst the BCs so you could hear the difference. There were also some WW Crossbills coming down to the road. Other highlights of the that day were a flock of Snow Buntings on Hwy 7 near Arkola Rd, a Roughed Grouse on Arkola about a mile west of the feeding station in the trees off the road and a Timber Wolf that crossed the road a long ways in front of us. I got a quick look through the binocs and it was definitely a wolf. Very dark but huge. We found the tracks and they made my old Golden Retriever paw prints look small. Day 3 Tuesday - We decided to continue our quest for a Great Gray Owl by heading up north along the lake to Silver Bay and taking Hwy 1 northwest toward Ely. It was just after sunrise and very cloudy morning when my navigator/spotter Dave spotted a Great Gray 40 yards off Hwy 1. This was about 4 miles east of Isabella. We had great looks but the light was too crappy for any decent photos. I don't know if I would have gotten a decent shot anyway as I was pretty excited. It is a bird I have wanted to see for years. It sat perched for about 20 seconds and flew off into the woods. That was about it for birds that morning. We drove to Hwy 2 and took it south to the far south end of Stoney River Forest Road. It is not plowed and had about 15 inches of snow on it. Nothing the old 4Runner can't handle so we drove the whole thing back up to Hwy 1 and the only sighting other than BC Chickadees were two Boreal Chickadees that we called out of some Spruce trees. Beautiful country but pretty birdless that day. We had heard Spruce Grouse were pretty reliable along that road but not for us. From there we had some lunch and headed back to Sax Zim. We arrived around 2pm and drove up to the northwest side of bog and explored. Not a lot happening except for Chickadees and some Common Redpolls. We went over to the feeding station on Admiral and had many of the same birds we had seen already including Boreal Chickadees. We found a few more Northern Hawk Owls. They seem to be mainly around Hwy 7 near Nichols Rd and Stone Lake Road plus a few sightings near Sax and Cranberry. Day 4 Wednesday - We planned to head back to Milwaukee early but it was such an incredible sunny morning we headed back to the Sax Zim to try for a Great Gray again. Struck out on the Great Gray but got some decent well lit shots of most of the same birds we had been seeing. We did walk back into the feeding station on MacDivit Rd on Tuesday. It is about 2 miles north of Sax. It is back in the woods about 60 yards or so on the east side of the road. There are markers with red flags and you will see the path. There are supposedly Black-backed WPs there but we whiffed on those. There is also a rumor of a Northern Saw Whet Owl coming to that feeder for suet. All we saw were hundreds of BC Chickadees, 2 Gray Jays, Downy and Hairy WPs. Here are some photos. Northern Hawk Owl http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880485 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834762 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834768 Boreal Chickadee http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834770 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880487 Gray Jay http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834663 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834708 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880492 Pine Grosbeaks http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834634 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834646 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834698 Purple Finch http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880493 http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880495 Roughed Grouse http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121834749 Great Gray - Documentary shot - Wish it would have been a little later. The sun came out about a 1/2 hour later http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/image/121880486 The rest of the gallery is here http://www.pbase.com/bhansen/saxzim Dave Freriks Gallery is here http://www.pbase.com/dhfreriks/new_photos Good luck to anyone is heading up there this weekend or later. Feel free to ask any me questions you might have. May want to do it soon while it is still fresh in my brain. Brian Hansen Milwaukee - east side #################### You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin Birding Network (Wisbirdn). To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: http://www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: http://www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn. Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: http://www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn. No virus found in this incoming message. 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