Sax-Zim Bog: Day 1
St. Louis County, MN
Wednesday 2 January 2019
15 °F
Today, my Uncle Mory and his friend Bruce drove me up to the Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota for an overnight stay. As well as owls, I was and am still hoping to find Boreal Chickadee, Bohemian Waxwing, and Sharp-tailed Grouse — all of which would be life birds.
Lo and behold, at our first stop, the Admiral Road bird feeders, I immediately found my life bird, brown-headed BOREAL CHICKADEE!!! So cool!!!
It was a frosty-cold temperature of 10 degrees F outside, and soon my toes felt as if they were to fall off. Some electromagnetic hand warmers I put in my socks from Uncle Mory did the trick in warming my toes, though. Phew!
Then, a flock of PINE GROSBEAKS descended on the feeder area and some beautiful males posed nicely:
A CANADA JAY (formerly called Gray Jay) flew in:
HAIRY WOODPECKER:
A few COMMON REDPOLLS, uncommon this winter, landed a few hundred yards away in a bare tree:
The final stop of the day yielded a beautiful male SNOWY OWL perched in a faraway tree across a field from our car, a wonderful way to end the day:
Bird-of-the-day to my life bird Boreal Chickadees and runner-up to the Snowy Owl.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 959 Species (1 life bird today: Boreal Chickadee)
Nice lifer and gorgeous snowy owl! We have our CBC this saturday, wish us luck...and maybe send a snowy owl our way!
Happy New Year Henry!
by Poo