Tag Archives: Birding Know How

Wawina Bog / Floodwood Bog

Background, Year 9,

No bird photographs accompany this post … just very important birding information and maps. For those of you who have ever driven the stretch of US Hwy. 2 just West of Floodwood, you have undoubtedly noticed the HUGE area of beautiful Boreal Bog that stretches as far off the road as the eye can see, and is on both sides of the highway for miles. This bog’s formal name is the Wawina Peatland and Scientific Area. The region is remote, and almost impossible to access, but I finally found a road yesterday afternoon that provides extremely good access … the Hedbom State Forest Road (just west of Floodwood). The biggest section of the Wawina Bog is actually on the southern side of US Hwy. 2. My impression of the habitat seen from Hedbom State Forest Road is it is truly magical … with lots of Bog with open spaces interspaced into the forest yet also including a large number of deadheads for use as raptor hunting perches! Warning: Be very careful of logging trucks if the road is plowed in the winter. The forest road is single lane, and would require you to back up a loonnng ways!

Here are two screenshots I took via Google Maps and annotated. The satellite image shows the Bog area (my rectangle area), and the terrain version demonstrates it is not worth driving past my Google Maps GPS Point. Further west of my point on the Hedbom State Forest Road the land becomes rolling hills and deciduous forest … still beautiful, but not what this birder was looking to experience.

If you don’t have the time to drive the Hedbom State Forest Road (or later in the winter it will be snowbound … not plowed), then try the short four mile stretch of Cty. 429 that starts at Wawina Township on US Hwy. #2. This road will be plowed through the winter, but it does not get you anywhere as deep into the Bog. I found this Red-Tailed Hawk on Cty. 429 this past fall.

Once again, here are the GPS Points for the Wawina Bog / Floodwood Bog via the list I maintain on Google Maps.

Habitat, Hunting & Weather: Great Gray Owl

Year 9,

I am putting the final touches on my presentation for my two talks later this week in the Chicago area. Understanding that the Great Gray Owl is often the “star of the show” when visiting Sax-Zim Bog, I have created this blog post which explains items important to both me and the owl in terms of a successful birding excursion.

First I do weather planning. Given Great Gray Owls hunt by hearing mice and voles running beneath the snow, or deep in the tall grasses, winds make hunting & hearing very difficult. I had planned on arriving at Sax-Zim Bog right at sunrise this morning. However an inspection of my weather app at 4:45 am showed I was very unlikely to have any owling success. Here are four annotated screenshots from my weather app, Weawow (available for both Android and Apple).

Here in the final screenshot notice that the winds will abate towards sunset today (around 5 pm). Cloud cover will be increasing as generally Great Gray Owls will not hunt during the day if there are bright, sunny conditions. Thus, guess when I am going birding?!

Here are some Great Gray Owl “hunt” photographs from a prior birding expedition of mine. The first image is of the impact area where the owl punched through the snow. The Great Gray heard the vole running underneath the snow and struck! Amazing.

The Impact Area

The Capture (maximize images to see the vole)

Here are four more photographs I took from another Great Gray Owl hunting experience where you see the strike / punch through the snow.

A Great Gray Owl’s ears are offset on its head, which is why the bird turns and twists its head to better triangulate the location of its prey (video link for email subscribers). Think trigonometry!

Finally … habitat. Great Gray Owls are birds of the Boreal Forest, but where in the boreal forest?? Generally in the winter months if you are able to find bog areas with lots of cattails (food for mice and voles) with plenty of deadheads (hunting perches) and nearby cover (spruce trees), there is a good chance you will find Great Gray Owls.

This summer I found this neat boggy area in a different part of northern Minnesota. I know this habitat holds owls in the winter. (video links for email subscribers: one | two)

My scouting drives in the Pine Island State Forest near Big Falls, Minnesota.

Plus one final image from that same summer morning

Assuming you’ve read this far down in my post, this material will be used in my Northeast Minnesota Birding Presentations (Sax-Zim Bog focus). See the outline!

ChicagoLand Birding Talk!

Year 9
Well not the Great Gray Owl, but volunteer naturalist Rich Hoeg! Next week, on Wednesday and Thursday (November 9th and 10th), Rich will be the guest speaker for Kane County Audubon and the DuPage Birding Club. His presentation will focus primarily upon birding in Sax-Zim Bog. My Thursday evening presentation will be available via Zoom. Thus, you need not live in the Chicago area. My presentation outline.
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