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.

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.

Gray Jays in the Sax Zim Bog

Well it is almost that time of year again. Back in October it looked like we were going to have a long cold snowy winter, with several early days of snow, but in November things have turned around. We have had a good string of mild weather and no snow.

The nice weather can not last forever though. Sooner or later the air will get colder and the snow will come. It is November after all and in Minnesota that usually means the beginning of winter. Even though it can some times get quite unpleasant here in Minnesota in the winter time, unless you enjoy temps below zero and wind chills that can almost freeze the air inside your lungs, it is actually a great place to do some winter birding.One of the premiere winter birding location in Minnesota is the Sax Zim Bog. The bog is an area located around the very small towns of Sax and Zim. This area is a magnet for species that come down from Canada in search of food. One species that is usually pretty easy to find in the bog during the winter is the gray jay.

Gray jays are not commonly found in the lower 48 states except in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the north east coastal states and in the Rocky Mountains. We usually only see them during the winter time in the northern part of the state especially in Sax Zim. One reason for this may be because these birds often cache food the in nooks and crannies of trees using their saliva to help it stick. They are omnivores so caching food in colder climates help to preserve food that might go bad.

Gray jays are members of the Corvidae family which includes jays, crows and ravens. Birds in this family typically have a higher intelligence then many other types of birds. The gray jay is no exception, they are very curious and are often referred to as a camp robber because of their habit of relieving campers of excess food and other items. Sometimes you find a cousin or two hanging around trying to look cool, like this blue jay.

If you are interested in seeing gray jays then you should consider the Sax Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival which will be held in February. I have been to the festival for the past two years, it is only two years old, and have come away with some marvelous pics. You can see some in the current slide show located in the side bar. You can also find a link to more information on the festival right below the slide show in the side bar.

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 Butterflies

Bees are not the only thing that helps to pollinate the plants. Butterflies do not collect pollen, like bees do, but they do also spread pollen when they are drinking nectar from a bloom. With plenty of wild flowers in bloom at the Sax Zim Bog I had plenty of opportunities for some butterfly pics.
I do not know my skippers very but I think that it is probably an European skipper.
European skippers are fairly common in the north east quarter of the US and Canada, since their accidental release in Ontario, Canada back in 1910. They are fairly plain except for the black line border on the top side of their wings.

The least skipper is similar in size, color and plainness, but they have a bit more black on their wings and they have a long tapered abdomen. The European skipper has a short fairly blunt abdomen as shown in the second pic.
I am always on the look out for blues while out in the fields. There are several variety of blues that can be found in Minnesota but the one that I always hope to see is the endangered Karner blue. Some parts of eastern Minnesota are with in the range of the Karner blue but Sax Zim is a little to far north and west. Most of the blues that I see have orange spots on their lower wing, both wings in the case of a Karner, but this blue only had a hint of orange. My guess is that it is a summer azure.
Although I did see my first tiger swallowtail of the year and a few monarchs I did not get any pictures of either of those types that day. It seems that they were more interested in fly then in getting their picture taken.
I did find one larger butterfly to photograph, this Milbert's tortoiseshell. The Milbert's torty is common in the northern portions of North America as well as higher elevations.
It is sometimes possible to see the Milbert's flying on a warm day during the middle of winter. In fact I photographed this type of butterfly up in the mountains of Yellowstone and the day before snow covered much of the park.

Sax Zim Bee

The fields of the Sax Zim Bog where filled that day with the smell of grass, the color of blooming flowers, and the hum of buzzing insects. I have not made bees a feature here at Ecobirder as I have butterflies and dragons but there are times when the pictures just compose themselves and the only thing that you can do is to trigger the shutter.
Bees are attracted to flowers because they eat the nectar and pollen contained with in the blooms. The nectar gives the bees energy while the pollen is used for protein and stored to feed the bee larvae. This bee appears to be looking for nectar. In the photo above you can see its proboscis inserted into the bloom.
Even when they are searching for nectar bees are still helping to pollinate plants. As they drink the nectar, pollen gets stuck on their legs and is carried to the next flower where some will fall off and begin the pollination process. The yellow powdery substance on the legs of the bee above is pollen.

Really Cool Dragons at the Sax Zim Bog

When we left the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary it was late we so we decided to stay the night at a hotel in the small town of Orr, MN. We got up early on the sixth and headed out right away. We did not have anything going that day, besides the 3 plus hour drive home, but since we were in the area I wanted to make a quick side trip and drive through the Sax Zim Bog area. The Sax Zim Bog is vast conifer bog located in north east Minnesota. The approximately 200 square mile area consists of a mix of spruce, tamarack, and northern white cedar bogs as well as hay fields and sedge meadows. It also includes 3 separate wildlife management areas.

The Sax Zim Bog is known as one of the best places, in the US, to see northern migrant bird species during the winter. Some of the species that you might see if you visit during the frigid months are northern goshawk, great grey owls, snowy owls, northern hawk owls, boreal owls, three-toed woodpeckers, black-backed woodpeckers, evening and pine grosbeak, common and hoary redpoll, crossbills, gray jays, bohemian waxwing, boreal chickadee and more.

We discovered that Sax Zim Bog is also a great place to photograph wildlife in the summer. Although we did not spend as much time as I would have liked exploring the different bog habitat, we still had a long drive home, we did find a lot to look at and photograph in the short time that we were there. Since it was July the dragonflies and damselflies where in high season and there were many around to photograph.
As I learned in the dragonfly workshop, which I took in August, it is difficult to tell the difference between damselflies with out capturing them and investigating them under a magnifying glass. My guess at the damsel above would be a familiar bluet but it is tough to be 100% positive with just a photo.
The chalk-fronted corporal, named for the pair of white stripes on the front of the thorax which resemble corporal stripes, are always a good thing to see. They are very social and often gather together in groups to feast on nasty pests like mosquitoes and deer flies.
There are also several types of meadowhawks that are very difficult to distinguish between. If you have captured a male, which in most cases are red in color, and are looking at it under a magnifying lens there are differences that you can see. However the females, which are a yellow color like the one above, are almost impossible to tell.
At first I believed that this was another female meadowhawk, but on closer examination of the photo I realized that it is actually a female dot-tailed whiteface. These were the first type of dragons that I spotted in the spring after the green darners. The males are black, with a single yellow dot on segment 7 of the abdomen and a white face.
The most exciting find of the day, and for me the most exciting of the trip, was a calico pennant. When I started photographing dragonflies last summer I visited several websites to help me identify the dragons that I had shot and get some info. At that point I spotted a picture of a calico pennant and thought that it was one of the coolest dragonflies that I had seen. From then on I had always hoped that I would see one and that Sunday was the day.
We had stopped to take a look at a shorebird that was perched on a rock in the midst of a small pool. The bird was pretty far away so I was easily distracted by some butterflies and dragonflies in the grass on the side of the road. I was on my way back to the car when I spotted a large dragon landing nearby. I went over to take a look and I was stunned to see this male calico in the grass. Before I could get a picture it took off and my heart stopped. Fortunately it did not go far, it landed and I was able to get several nice shots. Though they are not listed as a rare species in Northern Minnesota not many people that I know have seen them. In fact the leaders of the dragonfly workshop that I went to in August have been hunting dragons for about 10 years and they still have not seen a calico in Minnesota. So I was really excited to add it to my dragon collection and I am planning to use the first calico pic above as the February photo for my 2009 calendar.

Grosbeaks at the Blue Spruce feeder station

My final stop on my day trip to the Sax Zim Bog on Sturdy March first was the feeder station on Blue Spruce Road.
When I arrived it was pretty quiet. This was quite different from the time that I spent here on the Friday of the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival. On that occasion there were many birds at the feeder station. When I arrived on March first all that I saw where redpolls, which I had already taken some nice shots of off on Owl Ave, and black-capped chickadees.
Every once and a while a woodpecker would drop in to check out the suet feeders, but they were nothing unique. Just hairy and downy woodpeckers like I see all the time around home.
Finally after a little while a group of pine grosbeaks came in to check out the feeders.

The females were the first to arrive.
Followed shortly by several males.
They all stopped and perched on the evergreens surrounding the feeding station for several minutes to check out the situation.
Finally they determined that it was safe and flew over to the feeder station to indulge in the free feast.
I also did spot a boreal chickadee at this feeder but included those pictures in my boreal chickadee post.

Redpolls and Gray Jays at Sax Zim Bog

After I spent quite a bit of time on Admiral Rd and McDavitt Rd photographing three-toed woodpeckers and boreal chickadees I decided to head back over to highway 7 by the sod farm to check for the hawk owl again. I still did not find it so I decided to run over to Blue Spruce Rd to check out the feeding station there. I decided to take the back way so I took Arkola over to Owl Ave. While I was driving down Owl Ave I noticed several small birds flying around on a logging path that lead west from the road, so I turned around to take a look.

As I was parking I saw the reason that there was so much bird activity. Some one had dumped a bunch of seed on the ground, I think that it was black oil sunflower seed but I am not an expert since my small yard is not very advantageous for feeders, yet.
Gathered around the seed were a group of redpolls and black-capped chickadees.

The chickadees where pretty bold and kept eating until I got close, the redpolls would fly up into the safety of the trees any time that I moved and then return for another quick bite while I stood still.
I did not see any of them that looked like a hoary redpoll but they were darting around quite quickly so it was difficult to be sure. Plus I am not all that comfortable in my ability to tell a hoary from a common.
I had to go around the seed pile to get any descent shots because otherwise I would have been shooting straight into the sun. When I got to the other side of the seed I noticed what I believe is the print of a hawk plunging after its prey.It is a bit hard to see in a photograph but if you look carefully you can see the spread out wings, a somewhat fanned out tail and 2 talon prints. From the prints leading away I am guessing that this hawk was not successful on this hunting trip. I am guessing from the shape of the wings and the size that this was a hawk. Let me know if you think that I am wrong or if you can tell what type of hawk that it is.
While I was photographing the hawk markings a couple of gray jays joined the party. I did not have the right lens on the camera, I needed a wide angle to get a picture of the hawk print, so I needed to run back to the car to get my long lens.
I was able to get a couple of shots off before the jays took off for the shelter of the trees. It was getting late and I still wanted to get to Blue Spruce Road before I had to start the long drive home so I left the chickadees and redpolls to their feast and moved on.