Five Stars for Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter

Last month I had the opportunity to do a review of Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter. My friends over at Wild Bird Unlimited were nice enough to send me a jar of the Bark Butter as well as a Bark Butter Feeder to try out. I hung the feeder at my house and it has attracted quite a few chickadees and a couple of woodpeckers, at least that I have seen.

A couple of weeks back, when I had the opportunity to head up to the Sax Zim Bog to do some birding, I decided to bring the Bark Butter with. I wanted to test out a couple of things. I wanted to see how well the Bark Butter worked when it was applied directly to the tree and I wanted to see how well it would attract some of the northern specialties that are not very common in the U.S.

When I arrived at the bog I headed over to Admiral Ave to check out the feeding station located there. At the feeding station there was mainly common redpoll and black-capped chickadee. So I went up and spread some Bark Butter on several of the tree branches. Since redpoll are seed eaters they did not pay much attention to the Bark Butter but the black-capped chickadees began to go to the Bark Butter almost immediately after I left the feeding area.

I was not surprised that the black-capped chickadee were eating the Bark Butter, since they had been eating at home too, but I was hoping that one of the northern specialties would show up so I could see how well it would work on some less common birds. Soon a red-breasted nuthatch showed up and began to eat at the Bark Butter. I had white breasted nuthatch that had been on the feeder back home but we don't see red-breasted nuthatch too often in the southern portions of the state.

After watching and photographing the black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatch, redpolls and the single pine grosbeak I got really excited because a pair of boreal chickadees showed up. Boreal chickadees are usually found up in the boreal forests of Canada but a few migrate south during the winter and the Admiral feeder in Sax Zim Bog is the best place in Minnesota to have a chance to see them. I was hoping that there were still a few boreals around because I wanted to see how good that the Bark Butter would be for attracting them. Just like their cousin the black-capped, the boreal chickadees went right for the Bark Butter.

The boreal chickadees only stayed for a short time, as usual, eating their fill of Bark Butter and then disappeared back into the bog. As I was waiting for them to return, the seem to return to the feeders every hour or so, gray jays began to appear and a feeding frenzy began. The jays would eat a large chunk of Bark Butter and then grab another large chunk and fly away. Gray jays, sometimes reffered to as camp robbers, are known for caching food. This helps them to survive times when food is scarce.

Despite the fact that there was several different types of suet at the feeding station, and someone had even spread some peanut butter on one of the branches the jays, chickadees and nuthatch all kept going right after the Bark Butter. When I moved to the feeding station on Arkola there was only one gray jay in the area, it was in the trees across the street from the feeders. I decided to give that lonely guy some Bark Butter and with in a minute suddenly 15 gray jays appeared. This experience has certainly sold me on Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter. I will give it a 5 stars out of 5 and definitely recommend it if you are looking to attract birds that normally eat suet or other types of protein. I know that were some happy birds up in the bog that day and a happy Ecobirder who got a lot of great pics.

A Day in the Sax Zim Bog

For the past month I have been tyring to get back up to the Sax Zim Bog area to take some pics. I usually try and get up there a couple of times each winter because it is one of the best places around to see some of the species that usually live up in the boreal forests of Canada. I made my first trip up in January for the Brrrrdathon but because of weather and schedule I was not able to make it back up until last week. Since I had a vacation day that I had to burn I decided to take off last Thursday and head north.The weather on Thursday turned out to be quite nice. Except for some clouds around noon, the skies were pretty clear with temps up into the 20s. My first stop when I arrived was to the feeding station on Admiral Ave. I have always found this to be a great location for finding many of the wintering passerines. On this trip the feeders were dominated number wise by common redpoll. When I was up in January the only place that I found redpolls was at some of the feeders in the Meadowlands but on this trip they seemed to be everywhere. A couple of rare hoary redpolls have also been reported but I did not see any redpoll that appeared like it might be a hoary.

In contrast to the redpoll numbers were the numbers of pine grosbeak. In January there were large numbers of pine grosbeak around the bog. You could find a half dozen or more at almost any feeder in the bog. On this trip however I only spotted a couple females at the Admiral feeder and no other pine grosbeak anywhere else.

There were still a couple of boreal chickadees hanging around the Admiral feeder. They would come in and feed for a little bit and then disappear back into the bog. Forty five minutes to an hour later they would fly back in to the feeders, eat and then disappear again. While I was there I pointed them out to several other people who were looking for them because they were a life bird.

There were also a lot of gray jays at both the Admiral feeders and the feeding station on Arkola. Gray jays are very clever birds and not very afraid of people. On a couple of occasions I was afraid that one of them would fly though my open car window at Arkola.
After the two and a half hour drive and spending a couple hours in the car at the feeders I decided it would be good to get out and stretch my legs. So I put on my boots and headed off in to the woods off of McDavitt Road. This is usually a good place to find black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers. As I walked into the woods I could see signs that there were woodpeckers in the area. Black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers typically peel the bark off of the trees instead of boring holes in the wood like most other woodpeckers do. So I listened for their distinctive peeling sound and found a male bird at work deep in the woods.

It was a lot of work walking through the deep woods and thigh high snow to get the woodpecker pics so I decided to walk along a path for a while. This was fortunate because a little ways down the path I came across a northern hawk owl. Northern hawk owls are one of the few owls that are most active during the day, diurnal. The owl was perched over an area that had recently been used for logging and was probably hunting rodents that lived in the remaining wood piles. Later on I looked for great gray owls in the same area, I saw two on McDavitt in January, but on this trip I did not have any luck with great grays. This might have been because I did not want to stick around too late since I still had a two and a half hour drive to get home.

1st Annual Brrrrdathon

Last weekend I headed up north for the first annual Brrrrdathon. This event was sponsored by the newly created organization The Friends of Sax Zim, formerly Bird Nation, to raise money for an eventual visitors center in the Sax Zim Bog. Like any outdoor event held in Minnesota in January weather played a major role. Shortly after I arrived in Duluth on Friday the snow began to fall, which made photographing wildlife, not to mention driving, very difficult.

As I sat in my hotel room Friday night I was worried that the trip would be a waste of time due to the weather but when I woke up Saturday morning the skies where clear and blue. After digging my car out of the snow I headed out slowly to the bog. The city plows were already out working but the road conditions were still not very good, especially when I got to the back roads in the bog.

Despite my concern over the roads I was excited about the number of birds that I spotted as I travelled to the bog. The end of the storm seemed to bring the birds to life and many of them fluttered from tree to tree looking for food. As I entered the bog area a bald eagle soared from his perch to greet me.

The first place in the bog that I headed to was a feeding station that had been set up on Admiral Ave. Admiral had not been plowed at all but I was able to make it through travelling down the tracks of others who had already made their way down the road. A feeding station has been set up in this location for years and it has always been good for attracting northern species including boreal chickadees. When I arrived at the feeder there was already a pair of boreal chickadees there as well as black-capped chickadees, pine grosbeaks, red-breasted nuthatch, and downy and hairy woodpeckers.

After shooting at the Admiral feeder for about an hour I headed over to McDavitt RD, which is another location that many of the northern species have been seen. About half way down McDavitt I found a path in the snow that went back to a small feeding station that was located in the woods. I decided that I could use a little exercise so I through on my winter gear and headed out down the path. It did not take long before I located a pair of black-backed woodpeckers. I was excited because black-back and three-toed woodpecker sightings have not been as common this year as they have in the past. Unfortunately to get the angle I needed to get decent shots of the bird I did have to wade through waist deep snow. It was worth it though, don't you think?

The main attraction at Sax Zim are the northern owls. The Sax Zim Bog is a mix of state, county and private lands, which includes the Cloquet Valley State Forest, Whiteface River State Forest and the Sax and Zim Wildlife Management Areas. The habitat consists mainly of conifer bog, spruce, tamarack and white cedar. This particular habitat is very attractive to northern owls that come down from Canada in the winter in search of food. The most common type of owl seen during the winter is the northern hawk owl. I found this northern hawk owl perched in a tree not far off of Mcdavitt. Since northern hawk owls are mostly diurnal, active during the day, they are one of the easiest owl to photograph.

As the sun went down on Saturday night many birders began their search for the most prized bird in the bog, the great grey owl. Great grey owls have not been seen with any regularity in the bog since 2005, when there was an irruption of thousands of birds which came down from Canada. This season there have been more sightings then in the past few years but it still seems to be hit and miss. The fact that they are crepuscular, hunt at dusk and dawn, also does not help, especially if you are looking for pictures. Fortunately around 4:30pm I found some people who had spotted a pair of these owls on McDavitt Road. I got a few pictures in the low light and then just watched them hunt until the sun went down.

Winter Birding Part 4: Sax Zim Bog

One of the best places to bird in Minnesota during the winter is the Sax Zim Bog Wildlife Management Area. The bog is located in northeastern Minnesota not far from Duluth.

The main attraction of the bog are the owls that come down from Canada during the winter. As food sources up north of the border decline, due to winter weather, owls head down to the bog in search of prey. The most common northern owl to see is the northern hawk owl, above, which is a diurnal owl, meaning that it is active during the day which makes it easier to find. Other northern owls that sometimes visit the bog include great gray owls and boreal owls.

Besides the owls there are some other colorful species that can be found in the bog during the winter. One of the most common is the pine grosbeak, pictured above. Male pine grosbeak are red and gray while the females are more of a mustard color. Evening grosbeaks and white-winged crossbills can also be found, though they are not as common as the pine grosbeak.

Northern finches can usually be found around feeders. The numbers of these birds that visit the bog changes each year depending on the amount of food available back in their summer range. Last year there was quite an irruption of northern finches with pine siskin, pictured above, and redpoll being spotted all the way down in Iowa. This year I spotted very few northern finches, only a few pine siskin and one redpoll on this trip.

There are always plenty of chickadees around. Even though they are very common it is important to keep your eyes on them because you never know when a boreal chickadee might show up. These are another resident of the boreal forests up in Canada who will sometimes come down to Minnesota looking for food, but these little guys are not looking for seed. They are insect eaters so they are looking mostly for protein. So for the past few years several local birders in the area have attached parts of deer carcasses to trees in different locations through out the bog. This is a good source of food for many birds, especially the boreal chickadees and it also gives birders a place to look for these special birds. Unfortunately this year a local resident complained that the deer carcasses were attracting wolves, despite evidence to the contrary, and the DNR took them all down. This looked like it was going to be the end of one of the best places to photograph birds in Minnesota during the winter until a compromise was reached. The deer would no longer be allowed on public land, however seed and suet were allowed. So feeders went up in many key locations and the birds continued to come in to eat.

I never did see any signs of wolves. There were no tracks around the feeding stations and the carcasses were never torn down. The closes thing to a wolf that I ever spotted in the bog was a red squirrel but I don't think that he was causing too much trouble.

Boreal Chickadee and Technical Difficulties

I apologize for this very short post for tonight unfortunately when I got home from shooting tonight I found that my router had died. I have acquired a new one and hope to have it up and running by tomorrow. I wanted to make sure and get a post up so I am doing this one remotely. Here is a boreal chickadee pic that I shot up at the Sax Zim Bog in February to tide you over. Thanks for your patience.

Camera Critters: Boreal Chickadee

For many people, birding consists of putting up some feeders in the back yard and then watching to see what comes to visit. This is a great way to see a lot of birds with out having to venture too far. Up here in Minnesota common visitors to feeders include cardinals, juncos, sparrows and chickadees. The typical type of chickadee that we see here are the black capped, however if you want to get a bit more adventurous in your birding you can head up to northern Minnesota in the dead of winter in search of the boreal chickadee.

Boreal chickadees look similar to black capped, except that their cap is brown instead of black, which makes them a bit difficult to spot especially when they mix in with black caps.

Northern Minnesota is one of the few places in the continental US that you might have a chance to see these birds. They typically spend all of their time up in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska but during the winter, when their is less food available, they will cross into the most northern reaches of the US, which includes northern Minnesota. These pictures where all taken up in the Sax Zim Bog area back in January (1-10)

The problem is that a big part of their diet comes from insects, which are not very abundant during the winter time up in Canada and Alaska. They compensate for this lack of food during the winter by cache food during the warmer months. They supplement this cached food with pine cone seeds but in year where the pines produce less cones those birds that do not have enough food cached will head south in search of sustenance.

Sax-Zim Bog: Boreal Chickadees

Its funny how sometimes when you make plans to go out birding you find very little happening, but when you go out the next day, on a whim, you have a good day. That is what I found this week. After a very cloudy and disappointing holiday weekend I was pretty pumped up to see that the weather forecast was calling for sun and warmer temps this week. So I planned a trip, on Thursday, over to Prescott, WI to look for the harlequin duck that has been wintering there and then a side trip to Carpenter Nature Center to look for white-winged crossbills, which have been spotted recently. When I arrived, after leaving work, I found the area covered in fog. So I went home and ate some food and returned later. By that time the fog had lifted but unfortunately the harlequin was not to be found. I went to Carpenter, where I did see a lot of birds, but no crossbills.

So Today when I got off of work it was sunny, although the windchill temps were well below zero, so I decided to run back to CNC to give the crossbills another chance, but I never even made it. I stopped over at Prescott first and there in the middle of the river was the harlequin. While i watched the bird swam up and down the river near the railroad bridge and even came close to shore on a couple of occasions. I stayed there watching, and photographing until almost sunset and then headed home very happy.

I am hoping that my luck will hold out for this weekend. It is supposed to be cold and sunny for much of the weekend and I am hoping to make another foray up to the Sax-Zim Bog Wildlife Management Area.
On my last trip on January 10th I had some really good luck with some of the special winter migrants like the boreal chickadees.

Boreal chickadees spend most of their lives in the northern boreal forests of Alaska and Canada. They are one of the few types of songbirds that do not leave the frozen north during the winter time.

They survive through the winter months by caching food in the summer and fall. Their typical fair consists mainly of insects and spiders, including larva and eggs, as well as seeds, particularly spruce seeds.

Some birds will migrate a short distance south, typically the reason for this is because of a shortage of food. These birds, that come south in search of food, typically only come as far south as northern Minnesota. That is why the Sax-Zim bog is a great place to look for these typically elusive migrants.

These pictures were taken on Admiral Avenue near where some local birders have hung portions of a deer carcass. The boreals, as well as many of the woodpeckers, are drawn to the protein of the deer meat. If you would like the chance to see boreal chickadees, as well as redpolls, gray jays, black-backed woodpeckers, three-toed woodpeckers, northern hawk owls, great gray owls, boreal owls and snowy owls then you may want to take a trip to the bog. The Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival is coming up February 13th through the 15th. Registrations are accepted until January 31st, although the festival is limited to 150 registrants and I am not sure how many spots are still left. For more information you can check out the festival website Here. For more information on the bog you can check out the bog website or Mike Hendricks blog Colder By the Lake where Mike has documented most of the winter owl sightings in the state.

Sax Zim Boreal Chickadees

After photographing woodpeckers on Admiral and McDavitt Roads I decided to go check out the feeding station on Admiral Road. This feeding station began when Mike Hendrickson hung part of a deer carcass on a tree. Since that time another deer carcass has been added as well as several hanging suet feeders and a bunch of loose seed on the ground. When I arrived there were about a dozen birds feeding. Since they were all either black-capped chickadees or redpolls most where on the ground eating up the loose seed. After a few minutes a boreal chickadee showed up and began to eat bits of one of the deer carcasses. I only got a couple of quick shots before he took off. I decided to stick around for a while to see if the boreal would return.

I kept hearing boreals close by so I was hopeful and it payed off. A boreal returned and began to eat of the carcass again, which was cool, but then it perched on a small snag of the tree and turned so that I could get a couple of pictures of its face.

Later on I was at the feeder station on Blue Spruce Road shooting pictures of redpolls and grossbills when a boreal showed up.

Boreal Chickadees are native to the boreal forests that occupy large portions of Canada and Alaska.They feed on seeds, insects, and insect larva and often store food to help them survive the harsh winter months.
If food becomes scarce some boreal chickadee will migrate south and will winter in the northern areas of the United States. After feeding on suet, this boreal chickadee flew down to the snow bank to get a drink of snow.
The boreal chickadee is number five on the Audubon list of common birds in decline. According to the Audubon website the current estimated population of the boreal chickadee is 5.2 million. This is compared to about 20 million 40 years ago. This is a decline of 73%. The main reason for the decline in their population is probably loss of habitat due to over logging, mining and global warming.

Sax Zim Winter Bird Fest Chickadees

Another bird that I was hoping to get a picture of during the Sax Zim Winter Birding Fest was the boreal chickadee. While I have plenty of pictures of black capped chickadee I did not have any of the boreal chickadee.
That was until the festival. On our Saturday field trip we made a few stops along roads that bordered boreal habitat and looked for some of the elusive chickadees. We heard a call and caught a glimpse of one but it did not stay long enough for me to get a good look, let alone a photo, so we moved on. Later that day we ended up heading down McDavitt Road. Originally the plan was to head down Admiral Road and check out the suet and deer carcass that Mike Hendricks had attached to the trees for the birds but another bus had headed down Admiral so we went down McDavitt instead. We made a couple stops along the road, getting off the bus and listening for woodpeckers. At one of these stops one of our group leaders, Pastor Al, heard a boreal chickadee call. We looked around and found another deer carcass that Mike or one of the local people had attached to a tree. On the ground next to this tree was a boreal chickadee.
It did not take him long to move up to the carcass and start to feed. Boreal chickadees are omnivores but tend to prefer protein such as carrion and suet. Protein is a good source of energy and probably helps to keep them warm during harsh winter conditions.
Like the black-capped, boreal chickadees store food to eat later when times are lean, which is often necessary living in the northern regions.
Boreal chickadees usually spend all year in their northern boreal forest homes and don't migrate south unless there is a shortage of food. That is why there are very few places to see these birds in the US.
Later that day we did spot another boreal chickadee down at the Morse feeding station, but it was further away and did not really come into the open long enough to get any good pics.