Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

Birding the Arctic Riviera in NE Minnesota

Year 12, ,

I had already planned on using this title, Arctic Riviera, the focus of my next post. After all, the temperature fell to -34F (not windchill) this morning as I headed out long before sunrise. My goal was to find Pine Grosbeaks, which are a MUCH more difficult find this year than Great Gray Owls (go figure). Yes, Pine Grosbeaks are staying up north in Canada due to a banner Boreal forest food crop, while Great Gray Owls have pressed south in almost record numbers (joining our native Great Grays).

At my first Pine Grosbeak stop on a remote dirt road, I put the passenger front window down to listen for these finches. I easily recognize their call, but nada. Upon attempting to raise the window, nothing happened. Remember, the current air temperature was -34F. Repeated attempts to raise the window failed, including the window reprogramming trick I learned years ago for Subarus. In the end the window went up a few inches but then refused to budge further. I suspect my car did not like the severe cold.

Time out … often in this blog I have talked about the need for emergency kits. In addition to extra car keys, I carry extra warm clothes including choppers (warm mittens), a towing cable, a bow saw, jumper cables, and now a self jumping kit. The warm clothes came in handy as I needed to drive the almost 50 miles home at highway speed with the windows open. Even with the heater on it was a chilling experience.

Thus, I talk about birding the Arctic Riviera. Lake Superior’s North Shore / Forest is the riviera for many Boreal and Tundra Birds. Leading me to express how much fun I had yesterday with two difference owls:

  1. I visited the Two Harbors Great Gray Owls and had fun photographing them moments after day break with both the lighthouse and sea smoke in the images! This is a true trifecta of three items into one photograph, and Sea Smoke only forms when the difference between Lake Superior’s surface water (just above 32F and the air temperature … well below zero … is extreme)
  2. Yesterday afternoon I found a new Snowy Owl … its location known only to me! During this owl irruption, it has been difficult to have a “private viewing” with an owl. Eventually I will share the location with a few good birding friends, but for the moment it was just Snowy and me!
  3. Both of these owls are visitors who are enjoying the Arctic Riviera and came from “Up North”.

Rich’s Snowy Owl (I have no idea what the Snowy Owl saw in the final image, but the hunt was on!)

Great Gray Owl, Sea Smoke and a Lighthouse

Birding & Hiking the Golden Time!

Year 11,

The last two days have been sunny, and warm. While most people understand that this time of year means get outside and enjoy Indian Summer with its beautiful foliage, here in northern Minnesota there is a second season of color. After the leaves fall, needles of Tamarack Pines turn brilliantly golden. Unlike most pines and evergreens, Tamarack needles will fall to the ground within a few weeks leaving the tree bare till next Spring.

During the first week or two of the “golden time”, the early morning or late afternoon sun increases the gold to an intensity which needs to be seen to be believe. Better yet, up here in the Northland the sun now does rise super high in the sky. Thus, light tends to not get washed out like midday in the summer. In fact, I consider November 1st to the end of January … 3 months … to be the eternal Golden Hour!

To get an idea of the Golden Time, watch these two videos. The first was taken during a walk in the Greenwood Creek Boreal Forest. The drive was a sample of Stoney River Forest Road … both late in the day yesterday afternoon.

  • Video link #1 for eMail subscribers (the hike)
  • Video link #2 for eMail subscribers (the drive)
  • Video’s embedded immediately below for readers of the blog

The Hike

The Drive

Now this is a blog about birds. Thus, here are a few samples (a lot of samples from my hikes and drives over the past two days). Yesterday I was in the Greenwood Boreal Forest. This morning I birded Sax-Zim Bog. The two areas are about 70 miles distance from each other, but my home is located at a central point to the two wilderness areas.

Bald Eagle Time!

Canada Jay (Gray Jay … Whiskey Jack … etc.)

Grouse Time (was always at sunrise but during ground fog)

Ruffed Grouse Courting his Lady Friend (in October??!)

And the mating dance video (video link for email subscribers)

And the other grouse … the Spruce Grouse. Believe it or not yesterday morning I saw 14 spruce grouse. There are images of males, females … and even up in a Tamarack Pine.

And to end this post and put icing on the cake, I found a somewhat rare … definitely hard to find Black-Backed Woodpecker near the Greenwood Bog during my hike yesterday afternoon. I first heard the woodpecker drilling, and I thought the rhythm of its tapping just did not sound like a Hairy, Downey or Pileated. Thus, I left the trail and bushwhacked. Better yet when I found this woodpecker, it was a male … which means the “golden spot of its head” How very appropriate for this post. I already knew I would do a golden theme blog post, and this bird really fit the billing!

It is worth noting these are all “local birds”. Our crazy warm weather w/o and North or Northwest winds has keep most of the migrating arctic birds still to our north.

Now Arriving on Track #9: Arctic Birds!

Year 11,

Yesterday and today the Arctic arrived in northern Minnesota! I saw Lapland Longspurs, Horned Larks and my first Rough-Legged Hawk of the season. The birds were split between Two Harbors (the songbirds) and Sax-Zim Bog (the hawk). The numbers are not yet huge, but they’ve flown quite a distance!

This map is from Cornell’s All About Birds. All 3 species could use the same range map (some horned larks also breed further south)