The Bog: Winterbirdieland

  The Bog 

Northern Shrike 

Canada Jay by Molly

Sax-Zim Bog (March 10-12)

Do those three words stir you birding soul, say them again, slower this time: Sax-Zim Bog (so phonetic).  Do you remember Owen Wilson in the Big Year saying, "I've been up and down the Sax-Zim Bog and just can't find that sucker." ? (referring to a Snowy Owl his nemesis bird.  You should go to Magee Marsh in the Spring, Point Reyes or Cape May in the fall, Sierra Vista in the summer and northern Minnesota in the winter.

The Sax-Zim Bog is a big old frozen bog about an hour from Duluth Minnesota, not far from the Canadian border.   Every year Redpolls, Snowy owls, Northern owls, Northern shrikes, Canada jays and other cold adapted birds travel from the north to this southern edge of the boreal forest for the winter.

Molly and I were heading to the bog for three days in March.  A little late in the season but a Big Year is a lot to about squeezing in one great place after another.  We checked our luggage for any hitchhiking Hawaiian Nenes from our last trip and raced through the airport, 'Yes this is Mr. Nigro thanks for calling we will be at the gate any second'. We arrived the night before March 10th the last day the visitor center is open till summer.  

 

Bad news when we arrived at the local lodge. I checked the latest Sax-Zim Bog bird report (https://saxzim.org/birding-the-bog/bird-sightings/) the Bible of the area, including info on rarities obscured on Ebird.  The recent wintering Snowy Owl had been hit by a train and died on February 26th.  Owls do not do well around lights.  Keep those dark area movements going! 

That left the Great Gray Owl, Northern Hawk owl along with the Common Redpoll, Canada Jay, Boreal chickadee and the Hoary Redpoll as our primary Big Year Bog targets. (no Boreal Owls this year and we had already scored a Northern Shrike in California.)  In addition there was a Three-toed woodpecker recently reported about an hour north of the bog, that we might chase).  We did chase a Fieldfare near Duluth on the way to the bog--an epic failure.  

On the way from the airport to the bog we had a Rough-legged hawk, our first of the year.   This was our first new bird since Hawaii, making for these strange bird fellows on my year list.

359.  Rough-legged Hawk

09 Mar 2024

13258–13302 E US-2, Brule US-WI 46.56544, -91.61176 | US-WI

358.  Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse

Exotic: Naturalized

06 Mar 2024

Waikoloa Skatepark | US-HI

Day 1 March 10

A local guide and some birders staying at our lodge filled us in on the typical bog itinerary.  Drive up and down the edges of the forrest near the visitor center and/or Admiral road and look for Great grey owls. Then hit the feeders for song birds, and perhaps take a walk on one of a couple of excellent boardwalks.

So we drove slowly down Arkola Road.   Oh to be here in 2004-2005 the year of the great  irruption when you could see a dozen a day and the bog hit. the map.  Hopefully, a Great gray is sitting out on edge of a Black Spruce or Tamarack tree.  

No Great gray owl.  We stopped at the feeders at the Owl Avenue visitors center and counted numerous Common redpoll.  So many for a bird we had never seen before.  And don't you love their little red beret.

`                                                                Common redpolls

But no Hoary Redpoll.  We then went over to Admiral Road feeders and got it.  Note the little thin edged bill, the hoary coloring, lack of streaking.  Yeah!  Of course everywhere there were also Black-capped chickadees.

Yeah Hoary!

Omnipresent Black-capped

 Other birders showed up.  One mentioned the Northern Hawk Owl by the garden place.  We high-tailed over there look all along the garden area.  No owl.  A couple hours later we went back and there was the owl sitting on a high perch.  The Northern Hawk owl is in the family of owls, but acts very hawkish.  It hunts primarily during the day from a tall perch.

These two birds were our favorite of the trip.  We kept prowling the feeders.  On the north end of the bog is Susu feeders at a private residence.  These were the nicest feeders of the trip.  Several were spread out around the front yard.  And get this a heated port potty write by the feeders. And an early Evening Grosbeak greeted us.  Look at the size of his bill compared to the Hoary..

   Evening grosbeak, king of the grosbeaks?

This house stood in sharp contrast to the women across the street who eyeballed us from underneath her private property birders stay out sign. 

The next day we headed out early to cruise for the Great Gray Owl. No luck.  However, I did sign up for Telegram, the birding instant notices ap, on the insistence of a friendly birder who hooked me up with the Great Gray Owl site.  But alas with snow melting the owl were all staying deep in the woods.

However, we did have a highlight for the day. An hour north of the bog an American three-toed woodpecker had been reported on and off since January.  We drove up to Bublhotz/Plum Creek Road.  Thick trees lined the side of the road with no trails in site.  Then we heard the call of a woodpecker.  The 'show' bird moved closer and we were looking at a beautiful three-toed woodpecker on of only three species of three-toed woodpeckers in the world, including the Black-backed woodpecker and Eurasian three-toed woodpecker.  Two days after we saw the three-toed it was not reported in the area again.   The three-toed is non-migratory but wanders widely in search of yummy beetles.  Presumably, our bird wandered north as it was definitely at the southern end of its habitat.

American three-toed woodpecker is the only woodpecker that breeds near the Arctic Circle.(by Molly)

The bog was awesome.  

Molly with friend at Stone Lake in the Bog (Trumpeters not pictured but there)

We recommend getting there by the end of February to have a good shot at a a couple of our missed the Great gray and the Boreal Chickades.  And check out the Friends of Sax-Zim, a great organization.  They make it happen!