Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

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!

Buy a Vowel Birding!

Year 9,

I forgot to utilize “Buy a Vowel Birding” over the past few days. Many Arctic birds are now visitors near the Head of Lakes, including the first Snowy Owls of the season (one in Superior, and one in Ashland). I went looking for the Snowy Owl in Ashland, but missed seeing the bird. I know the owl is still in the area. I forgot to buy a vowel … the letter “Y” (sometimes a vowel) to make Snowy.

  • I found Snow Geese
  • I saw lots of Snow Buntings
  • I missed seeing the Snow”y” owl.

Anyhow, the other snow birds from the past two days.

Snow Bunting (these birds are some of the first to migrate back north in February)

Snow Geese (two very unusual morphs in terms of their coloration)

I also went out birding this morning which was the Deer Hunting Opener. One should never be worried about birding during hunting season. Just use common sense:

  1. If you are birding the Boreal Forest and its bogs, you won’t find many hunters. Deer do not like bog habitat. Thus, deer hunters do not like bog habitat
  2. Should you bird areas that are deer habitat, ensure you bird 2+ miles from any location where trucks and SUV’s are parked.
  3. Wear Blaze Orange or Bright Red
  4. You will be safer in the woods, that most cities!

Birding at the Top of the Watersheds

Year 9,

Ever heard the term “A Canary in a Coal Mine”? Supposedly years ago coal miners would bring canaries deep into the earth with them while mining. If oxygen levels fell to unsafe levels, the bird would demonstrate the effects first, pass out and thereby tell the miners to seek safety.

Earlier this week Cornell University issued their annual report on bird population health (or lack thereof). Folks, we’re killing our planet. The data is disheartening … from the report’s overview: “The United States and Canada have lost 3 billion breeding birds since 1970—a loss of 1 in 4 birds”. This is not a debate about climate change … the bird population loss is due to reduced or poisoned habitat. We all live in this habitat / land … A Canary in a Coal Mine. Think about it.

Personally I am very lucky and live on a migration highway (the North Shore of Lake Superior) and near the top of not one, but three watersheds (Mississippi River, Hudson Bay, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence). My local water is not downstream of anyone else.

Yesterday was a good example in that I tend to see birds most folks do not come across. Visiting the Forest Hill Cemetery I found a Rusty Blackbird. It was eating bugs in the middle of a small mudflat. Perhaps blackbirds do not excite you, but Rusty Blackbirds are just one small example of the problem. Cornell states: “The population has plunged an estimated 85-99 percent over the past forty years”.

Rusty Blackbird Finding Breakfast

On the Lookout for Merlins and other Raptors

Yesterday I also found a few Black-Billed Magpies up at Sax-Zim Bog.