Sax Zim Raptors

January and February can be awfully long months here in Minnesota but if you are willing to brave the cold and work a little bit harder winter birding can be very rewarding. Last winter I made several trips up to the Sax Zim Bog area in northern Minnesota to do a little winter birding.

Besides all of the cool passerines that I had the chance photographed, which includes gray jay, common and hoary redpoll, white-winged crossbill, boreal chickadee, pine and evening grosbeak, black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers, and more, there were also quite a few raptors around. I was surprised to find a few eagles up on the bog when all of the water around was frozen. I assumed that they were able to remain because of a constant supply of roadkill which kept them fed.

The winter owls are a main reason why people come to this area. Especially after the eruption of 2004 and 2005 when great gray, boreal, and northern hawk owls came down to the area in the thousands from Canada in search of food. This eruption drew national attention and people from all over the country, as well as some from other countries, came to northern Minnesota to see all of the owls. That eruption was most likely a once in a life time occurrence however we do have owls that come down from Canada and winter in the area every year. Last year I spotted this great gray owl out on the hunt at dusk. I also spotted several northern hawk owls, one of the northern hawk owl pictures is in my 2010 calendar, and while at the 2009 Sax Zim Bog Birding Festival last year someone spotted a boreal owl. Unfortunately I was somewhere else at the time but I am still trying to get that boreal pic.