Tag Archives: MN North: Wawina Bog

Common Redpoll Invasion

Year 11

On Wednesday I drove and birded Hedbom Forest Road near Floodwood. This birding spot is one of my NE Minnesota Birding Locations and part of the free PDF of birding locations you may download / use on your mobile device.

Hedbom is wunderbar! I’m not certain how much longer this forest road will continue to be drivable this winter as snow will get deeper, but for the moment if you are in the vicinity of Floodwood, Minnesota check it out. One need only drive the first 3.5 miles from the gate to see the best habitat. While I did not find any owls (I was hoping I might find a hawk owl) I did find hundreds and hundreds of Common Redpolls. These birds are invading NE Minnesota this winter. Right now they are not visiting feeders, but later in the winter that equation will change. For the moment they are finding lots of natural food in the forest.

While many of these images may look like you are seeing the same bird, in actuality about 300 redpolls were gritting up right in front on my car, and I knew they would fly to a particular dead tree to clean their beaks.

Common Redpoll … Incoming!

And More Redpolls and Lichen

Wawina Bog / Floodwood Bog

Background, Year 9,

No bird photographs accompany this post … just very important birding information and maps. For those of you who have ever driven the stretch of US Hwy. 2 just West of Floodwood, you have undoubtedly noticed the HUGE area of beautiful Boreal Bog that stretches as far off the road as the eye can see, and is on both sides of the highway for miles. This bog’s formal name is the Wawina Peatland and Scientific Area. The region is remote, and almost impossible to access, but I finally found a road yesterday afternoon that provides extremely good access … the Hedbom State Forest Road (just west of Floodwood). The biggest section of the Wawina Bog is actually on the southern side of US Hwy. 2. My impression of the habitat seen from Hedbom State Forest Road is it is truly magical … with lots of Bog with open spaces interspaced into the forest yet also including a large number of deadheads for use as raptor hunting perches! Warning: Be very careful of logging trucks if the road is plowed in the winter. The forest road is single lane, and would require you to back up a loonnng ways!

Here are two screenshots I took via Google Maps and annotated. The satellite image shows the Bog area (my rectangle area), and the terrain version demonstrates it is not worth driving past my Google Maps GPS Point. Further west of my point on the Hedbom State Forest Road the land becomes rolling hills and deciduous forest … still beautiful, but not what this birder was looking to experience.

If you don’t have the time to drive the Hedbom State Forest Road (or later in the winter it will be snowbound … not plowed), then try the short four mile stretch of Cty. 429 that starts at Wawina Township on US Hwy. #2. This road will be plowed through the winter, but it does not get you anywhere as deep into the Bog. I found this Red-Tailed Hawk on Cty. 429 this past fall.

Once again, here are the GPS Points for the Wawina Bog / Floodwood Bog via the list I maintain on Google Maps.

Attack Jays on a Summer Afternoon

Year 9,

What? Me Worry? (famous words of Alfred E. Newman … Mad Magazine). Yesterday afternoon with thanks to my local Blue Jays, I easily found one of the two Great Horned Owlets, but although being harrassed, the owl did not seem overly concerned. In fact, after a crow attack dies down an owl almost always seems to move to a new hiding spot (my experience), with Blue Jays the owl could not care less! It slept!

Sleeping Great Horned Owlet!

Blue Jays helping me find the Owl (video link for email subscribers)

A few more images from yesterday afternoon. I very much enjoyed seeing an owl during the main part of the day!

Once evening rolled around I spent time scoping out some new bog habitat near Duluth (not Sax-Zim Bog). Judging  by the number of birds I saw, the area looks very promising! During the Summer months I like to explore new areas for repeat visits during the prime raptor viewing season each Fall.

Red-Tailed Hawk in the Wawina Bog