Life is tough when you are named after a country! This “Canada Jay” (also known as a Gray Jay) was being picked upon this morning up in Sax-Zim Bog. You can just barely see the victor of this battle flying away at the top of the image.
Meanwhile not too far away I found a couple of male Pine Grosbeaks. Red is also cool. Regardless it was a gorgeous day to be outside up in the Bog.
Pine Grosbeaks are aware of this fact, but I get ahead of myself …
Crabapples (ornamental or pygmy) are almost non existent in the Northland this year. The combination of a late frost followed by a summer drought killed over 95% of the crop. I have only see a few trees with fruit … all close to the shores of Lake Superior. One of the locations with apples are the five trees near Two Harbor’s steam engines. For almost two weeks I have been checking these trees, and today I struck paydirt (payapples?!). The immature and female Pine Grosbeaks had found these trees. I spent over 20 minutes with the birds on two different occasions. The sun even came out briefly which made the photographer in my happy. Why crabapples? Ask the Pine Grosbeaks. The Mountain Ash trees have lots of berries, but they were being ignored for the moment.
Birding has been difficult lately … snow, rain and now wind (40 mph winds today out of the WNW). Finally, most of the feeders are now filled up at Sax-Zim Bog. The Welcome Center opens on Saturday, December 4th (10 am to 3 pm daily). In December, I will be volunteering on Sunday, December 5th and Saturday, December 18th. Stop by and say hello and get your birding questions answered (I hope!).
The weather has been poor up here in the Northland for the past two days, and really horrible over the past 24 hours. For someone like me who lives for being outside, that means Cabin Fever. Thus, this morning at 7 am I informed my wife I was heading to Sax-Zim Bog.
My answer to all of these questions was a resounding “No!”. Now logic dictates I should have stayed home, but as I approached the Bog, the weather moderated and what had been rain at my house was snow in the Bog. The trees were flocked with snow, and it was a winter wonderland. Here is a 20 second video of the Bog’s backroads this morning. (video link for email subscribers)
I tried to hide from the wind, but Old Man Winter laughed at me. Unfortunately, even though I knew the Great Gray Owls had to be hungry, not one came out to play. Just when I was about to return home, much to my surprise the sun tried to come out. Better yet, a Rough-Legged Hawk started hunting for voles and did not care about my presence (unusual). This particular bird hovered almost motionless directly over me. Cabin Fever cured!
As a fyi, the Rough-Legged Hawk is one of my favorite raptors. It breeds in the Arctic, and I get to see it twice per year … during the Spring and Fall migrations.
