Category Archives: Year 8

Sax-Zim Bog Summer Birding

Year 8

While people always think Great Gray Owls in the winter, and warblers in the summer at Sax-Zim Bog, I think grassland birds! Just south of the Boreal Forest (i.e. a couple of hundred yards), there are some excellent meadows and pastures which grassland birds love. A favorite birding summer drive of mine takes the route shown below …

This route yields (see birding map)

  • American Goldfinches
  • Black-Billed Magpies
  • Bob-o-links
  • Dickcissels (irruption years like 2021)
  • Eastern Kingbirds
  • Hawks (hunting for their young)
  • Killdeer
  • Meadowlarks
  • Sparrows (lots of them)
  • and more …

This past week I went in search of Dickcissels. While this bird may be seen at many grasslands this summer, an irruption year, the Bog truly yields numbers.

Dickcissels

Dickcissel Singing Out (video link for email subscribers)

Unexpectedly I also found a family of five Killdeer. While killdeer are not rare, the chicks were born late and could not be more than a day or two old.

Northern Minnesota Pontoon Boat Ride (Loons and Magpies)

Year 8

Yesterday morning shortly before 6 am I took the pontoon boat out for a cruise on Northstar Lake. This body of water is 60 miles south of the Canadian border in northern Minnesota, and is the southernmost lake of the Hudson Bay Watershed. It is also my little part of paradise. The lake is very wild, and this 30 second video takes place in a channel near my cabin between two sections of the lake (email subscribers video link).

Luckily by being out early I beat the Canadian forest forest fire smoke which rolled into the area a few hours later. For me it was dead calm and perfect photographic conditions. While checking upon two Common Loon families, I heard a very rare bird song … Black-Billed Magpies. While magpies are common in the western states, they are extremely rare in my area … even more so in the Boreal forest. I discovered a nest!

Black-Billed Magpies

Black-Billed Magpie Range (map courtesy of Cornell’s All About Birds)

Common Loon Families