Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

90 Minutes With a Great Gray Owl

January 10, 2019Year 6MN North: Sax-Zim Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

After three days of snow, ice, rain and finally extremely high winds, when I saw that the weather forecast contained calm winds (under 3 mph) and thin clouds I knew this morning was a great one to be Bog bound. The last few days had been horrible if you are a bird which hunts by hearing voles running beneath the snow. Owls had to be very, very hungry.

By sunup (behind the clouds) I arrived at Sax-Zim Bog. Within moments I found my first Great Gray Owl, and then for the next 90 minutes I watched owls hunt till it was finally time for their mid day siesta. I then left the owling grounds and drove over to the Warren Nelson Bog where I took a short hike and saw Boreal Chickadees, a Northern Shrike, and two Black-Backed Woodpeckers. By 10:30 I was on my way home … wow … what a great morning of birding.

Oh yes … did I mention the skies cleared very briefly and I even managed to take a few photographs with a blue sky background. Life is good.

Great Gray Owls at Sax-Zim Bog

Black- Backed Woodpeckers at the Warren Nelson Bog

Northern Shrike at the Warren Nelson Bog

Nordic Skiing in Sax-Zim Bog

January 8, 2019Year 6MN North: Sax-Zim Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

I like to explore Sax-Zim Bog … often by Nordic skiing.

For a number of years, I have wanted to see Lake Williams, which is north of Lake Nichols. I knew there was a snowmobile trail, and yesterday after the freezing rains quite, I skied into the back country. During the week, snowmobile trails are a great way to get around northern Minnesota. On weekends, I tend to stay off the more popular trails. I did not see a single snowmobile during my mid day ski. From experience I know one can hear the sleds from a long distance away which always allows me to get off the trails before the snowmobiles arrive.

The ski was gorgeous. Although I did not see any owls during my ski, the first 1/2 km was prime owl habitat. At one point I crossed the power line cut. I learned that snowmobile distance signs are very inaccurate. Metal signs stated among other things that it was 2 miles back to Lake Nichols. My Garmin had the distance measured at 2 kilometers. The same sign stated Lake Williams was another 1 mile distant. It was only 1/2 km further through the woods.

Lake Williams is everything you could want in a remote lake. I skied out onto the lake ice and enjoyed the silence. I then turned around and skied back to my car at the Lake Nichols boat launch.

As a fyi … I also had a failed cross-country ski jaunt yesterday. I like to ski into the Bog north of Lake Nichols Road using the small streams in the area just east of hwy #7 where folks search for Great Gray Owls. Wrong move, but I suspected that might be the case. This winter has not yet been cold enough, and when I got downstream of my first beaver dam, I could tell the ice was not thick enough. I turned around and skied back to Nichols Lake Road. The heavy snows and mild temperatures this winter just haven’t formed a thick sheet of ice where mild currents are present (like downstream from a beaver dam).

My ski into Williams Lake was 5.25 kilometers round trip with an elevation change in total of 135 feet … quite easy.

I did take a few bird photographs, but the off and on freezing rain did not inspire me to do much with my camera. However, this image was another Canon SX70 interesting test. While I normally keep digital zoom turned off, and I turned digital zoom on and took this photograph of Snowy a few hundreds yards out in the field. I was not actually at absolute magnification as I wanted the full hay bale and pine tree in the photograph. Thus, I back off the zoom a bit. Digital zoom performed well, but close inspect of the image yields little detail. I guess I prefer to only use optical zoom, and hope my outdoorsman skills can get me closer to my intended subjects. Obviously in a situation like the one presented here, I was as close to the Snowy Owl as possible. I never trespass.

Birding in the Past: Evening Grosbeaks!

January 4, 2019Year 6MN North: Sax-Zim Bog, MN North: Two Harbors Highlandsrichardhoeg@gmail.com

The birds one finds in northern Minnesota have definitely changed since my youth (I’m 62 years old). Our family home was only a few miles from where my wife and I live now. We had two huge bird feeders which were always busy, particularly in the winter. Like clockwork, every fall I could count upon the fact that when the Mountain Ash berries ripened in our yard, the Evening Grosbeaks would appear out of the Boreal Forest. When the berries were gone, and the grosbeaks were sufficiently drunk from fermented berries, they would then spend the rest of the winter in our yard … visiting our feeders many times per day. As the snows began to fall, Red Crossbills would join the backyard celebration.

It has been decades since I have had either bird specie in my feeders. However, now each winter sees my flock of Mourning Doves making their daily visits to my feeders, and Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal normally appear. While mourning doves were always present when I was a child, they never braved the northern Minnesota winters. To see a cardinal, one had to travel way south of Duluth. Yes … times and weather have changed.

Thus, you can imagine my pleasure when while birding yesterday morning I heard Evening Grosbeaks! Even though I normally only find these birds once or twice per year, their song is etched into my memory. I knew immediately what birds were near by, and looking up to the very tops of some ash and pine trees … there were my yellow friends. Life is good.

Since your own youth, what birds do you now see, or don’t?

Evening Grosbeaks on McDavitt Road in Sax-Zim Bog