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Jan. 3rd, 2005 06:13 pmToday was amazing!
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morganlf and I went birding up in Northern Minnesota, about an hour northwest of Duluth, in the peat bog area known as Sax-Zim. Minnesota has been experiencing an amazing influx of northern owls (Great Gray, Northern Hawk, etc.) as well as other rare northern birds. We woke up at oh-dark-30 (4:30 am) and were out the door at 5am. Water, diet coke, M&Ms and beef jerky in hand we braved the trek on 35 north to Sax-Zim in search of owls in my mother's *huge* Lincoln Navigator. I must say, I love the seat heaters.
We ended up having truly awesome day. We arrived shortly after 8am as the day was dawning. Having heard lackluster reports from the day before about diminished numbers of owls, Alison was afraid we wouldn't see anything! About 15 minutes in, we spotted our first great gray--a huge blob in the birch tree above us. I screeched to a halt and we stared in awe at this huge (3' tall!) bird in the tree above us before it took to wing and vanished deeper into the forest. Sax-Zim is several hundred acres of farm land, peat bog, birch and pine forest that apparently results in a great habitat for an enormous number of birds. Finding a bird once it launches itself back into the canopy was not going to happen, so we moved on. We soon preceeded to find more. And more. The total for the day was 16! We also spotted a beautiful Northern Hawk Owl consuming it's lunch high atop a tree. Unfortunately, we didn't get a close look, but it was still pretty awesome.
The owl invasion attracted birders and photographers from all over. This is somewhat unfortunate, since a lot of the visitors aren't particularly polite to the people who live in the area. People congregate outside feeders at people's homes pointing high-powered optics at their houses. We ran into a group from New Jersey today who setup their spotting scopes across the entire road. We had to weave past them to get by--this is the same road traversed by tractors and other local vehicles. We tried to be good and not stop at household feeders--I did backup nearly a hundred yards on a little highway (there was no cars to be seen for a mile or two) to get a photo though....
( species list )
photos can be had here....
morganlf and I went birding up in Northern Minnesota, about an hour northwest of Duluth, in the peat bog area known as Sax-Zim. Minnesota has been experiencing an amazing influx of northern owls (Great Gray, Northern Hawk, etc.) as well as other rare northern birds. We woke up at oh-dark-30 (4:30 am) and were out the door at 5am. Water, diet coke, M&Ms and beef jerky in hand we braved the trek on 35 north to Sax-Zim in search of owls in my mother's *huge* Lincoln Navigator. I must say, I love the seat heaters.We ended up having truly awesome day. We arrived shortly after 8am as the day was dawning. Having heard lackluster reports from the day before about diminished numbers of owls, Alison was afraid we wouldn't see anything! About 15 minutes in, we spotted our first great gray--a huge blob in the birch tree above us. I screeched to a halt and we stared in awe at this huge (3' tall!) bird in the tree above us before it took to wing and vanished deeper into the forest. Sax-Zim is several hundred acres of farm land, peat bog, birch and pine forest that apparently results in a great habitat for an enormous number of birds. Finding a bird once it launches itself back into the canopy was not going to happen, so we moved on. We soon preceeded to find more. And more. The total for the day was 16! We also spotted a beautiful Northern Hawk Owl consuming it's lunch high atop a tree. Unfortunately, we didn't get a close look, but it was still pretty awesome.
The owl invasion attracted birders and photographers from all over. This is somewhat unfortunate, since a lot of the visitors aren't particularly polite to the people who live in the area. People congregate outside feeders at people's homes pointing high-powered optics at their houses. We ran into a group from New Jersey today who setup their spotting scopes across the entire road. We had to weave past them to get by--this is the same road traversed by tractors and other local vehicles. We tried to be good and not stop at household feeders--I did backup nearly a hundred yards on a little highway (there was no cars to be seen for a mile or two) to get a photo though....
( species list )
photos can be had here....
