Greenwood Creek Bog Bird Feeders Update

While the new location of the bird feeders still is not wildly active, the trend is very positive and it appears this will be their permanent home. Within 24 hours of my placing the feeders and scattering sunflower seeds, the local grouse population had discovered the offerings. As a fyi, over the past few months I have seen many, many roughed and spruce grouse very near this location, both on the trail (Forest Road #813) and out on the highway (Lake County #2).

Yesterday morning, it was a treat for me to discover two different groups of birders at the feeders. Obviously I am successfully getting the location of the feeders out to both birds and humans! Here are all the details about the feeders including GPS locations, maps, hikes and more.

I enjoyed watching some Black-Backed Woodpeckers during a hike from the feeders this past Sunday. It was crazy warm … 52F in early February in the Boreal Forest. While I enjoyed the warm sun, this kind of weather is actually dangerous for the habitat and hopefully we will quickly see returns to much colder conditions.

Here are a few of my Black-Backed Woodpecker images. The couple were about 800 yards down the trail. Before I move on to the photos two final comments:

Included you will also find Lynx tracks. A family of these gorgeous cats are obviously in the area
Two owl boxes are on nearby trees. One box is about 300 yards down the bird feeder trail on the right (about ten yards off the trail). The other box is about one mile down the main trail (forest road #813) on the right … where the bog begins. I suspect the US Forest Service put these boxes up some years ago. Both boxes are in good condition, and appear to be focused towards either Saw-whets or Boreal Owls; however Boreals have not been known to have nested in NE Minnesota now for over ten years.