Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

Fall Colors Continued … Great Gray Owl!

Year 7
While for many folks, the fog over the past two days in northern Minnesota might be a bummer, it represented a “low light opportunity” for me to go “owling”. The combination of wet, damp nights made me believe my friends might be out hunting long past sunrise.
I planned my arrivals in Sax-Zim Bog to correspond for my best estimate as to when the thick fog would be lifting (around 9 am). I was rewarded with watching Great Grays hunt three different times over the past two days … as late as 11:00 am.
The “colors” in these images are the needles of Tamarack Pines which are one of two common trees in a bog habitat. Unlike most pine and spruce trees, Tamarack Pines lose all their needles each fall. The first two weeks of October generally represents a majestic golden time of year. People tend to focus upon Sugar Maples in the Fall for their brilliant red leaves, but a sunset or sunrise against the golden Tamarack needles is heavenly. One other side benefit is for a person with a beat up body (see bottom of linked post) from a bicycle crash, slow hiking dirt roads while owling is a perfect activity!

Blue Bonanza!

Year 7,

September is one of my favorite time to go birding. While I never know what birds I will see, I rarely am disappointed in terms of seeing great variety. Yesterday afternoon, I hiked over to find Hoot (unsuccessfully), but found well over 30 American Restarts flitting around the pine grove where my owns often hang out. In addition, there were good numbers of other migrating warblers. My key takeaway … get out there and enjoy the migration.

One of my rules during migration is generally not to look for specific kinds of birds, but to pick known good birding habitat and enjoy the hit parade. This morning in my own yard it was non stop Blue Jays. At times I could see well over 20 jays at once … my feeders were a big hit.

Two days ago I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog at sunrise. The numbers of American Kestrels was amazing, and I had an extremely rare sighting … a Red Headed Woodpecker. The other staff / naturalists for the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog only knew of one other Red Head ever being seen in the Bog area. We are north of their preferred habitat.

I don’t normally take videos of my own feeders, but this morning’s blue demanded an exception! (video link for email subscribers)

Think Like an Owl!

Year 7,

Advance research pays off! While this isn’t one of my best photographs of the Great Horned Owls that live near my home, I’m proud of the image for several reasons … a whole lot of research went into finding this bird.

  • Recently it has been difficult to find my local owl family. Thus, I decided to think like an owl. I remembered that while cross-country skiing at night last winter, I would often hear the owls hooting at a particular spot on the ski trails. Yesterday afternoon I hiked to this area, and explored. In my humble opinion it looked “owly”, but I did not find any birds. The pine grove was extremely thick and dark even during the brightest part of a summer afternoon.
  • This afternoon I returned and jackpot! I think this is the “Dad” of my local owl family. I took the photograph 5 minutes before a downpour hit (yes … got quite wet). The exposure time for this image was almost 1/2 second but thankfully owls will sit very still, and I had a monopod.

I knew my family of owls were still very much around. They actually woke both Molly and me up last night around 3 am. Long story short, there was a huge racket outside our bedroom window. I am convinced one of the parent had made a kill, and junior threw a temper tantrum when it did not get fed! The juvenile screeched extremely loudly at the top of the tree fifteen yards from our window. We could easily sit it. Like all youngster I finally realize the meal was not going to be provided, and it flew off to hunt on its own.

I also went up to Sax-Zim Bog yesterday morning where I found this family of Sandhill Cranes (two birds not in the picture)