Within the past 48 hours a new wave of Snowy Owls has arrived in NE Minnesota and NW Wisconsin … from Sax-Zim Bog to the North Shore to Ashland, Wisconsin. Better yet, I have seen my first male Snowy Owl! (see below). Neither the photo ops nor light has been great, but it is so neat to see a male owl (much, much whiter than the females). These two images were taken 14 hours apart. Hopefully this owl has set up a winter territory.
Tag Archives: WI North: Richard Bong Airport
Team Vole is in Trouble!
I’m not sure which team Snowy was cheering for yesterday evening, but for Team Vole a mistake would surely be deadly (oops … I mean tasty). Our early season viewing of Snowy Owls up here in the Northland continues to be lots of fun. However, tonight’s forecast winter storm with 12 inches of snow will make the Snowy Owls harder to find!
At the ballpark
On the hunt
The Fall Birding Doldrums
- Most of our summer birds have departed the Northland
- Winter birds from up north have not yet arrived
- Eternal thick fog seems to have coated the area
In short, the birding opportunities have been few and far between over the past week. Perhaps the only excitement was fixing the bear damage at the new public bird feeders at French River.
Winter birding is just around the corner. Two prime locations near Duluth are Sax-Zim Bog just north of town, and Superior (just across the bridge from Duluth). I recently created two short birding guides for a friend’s business. Folks may enjoy downloading the free PDF’s.
- Finding Snowy Owls in Superior, Wisconsin
- Birding Sax-Zim Bog (a quick overview)
The sun did briefly make an appearance yesterday morning, and I caught this Pileated Woodpecker in flight.