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| My quarry: Great Gray Owl |
Right after arriving home from the sunny Caribbean, I did
something completely different: I took a guided birding trip to northern
Minnesota in search of owls. Yep, northern Minnesota in January (but, then, I
also traveled to Iceland in January back in 2015).
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| Cold, northern landscape |
I booked the tour through NatureScape Tours, with which I took my Pelagic birding trip last year.
The Trip
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| Northern Hawk Owl |
This is the trip description from NatureScape's website:
Minnesota in winter offers unrivaled opportunities to photograph northern owls, forest grouse, winter finches and the region's meadows, bogs and forests during its winter splendor.
For many people the first image that comes to mind when thinking of Minnesota in winter is of frozen lakes, cold, snow and ice.
To photographers in
the know, that image exists only as a glittering backdrop for Great Gray and
Northern Hawk Owls hunting from spruce-top perches, Sharp-tailed and Ruffed
Grouse stripping Birch buds by morning's glowing light, legions of Snow
Buntings wheeling in tight formation, flocks of colorful Pine and Evening
Grosbeaks refueling at bird feeders, frenzied Common and Hoary Redpolls darting
among Alder thickets and Tamarack bogs occupied by industrious Black-backed and
American Three-toed Woodpeckers.
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| Red Crossbill |
Add in boreal forest residents like Spruce
Grouse, Northern Goshawk, Gray Jay and Boreal Chickadee; nomadic winter
visitors such as Glaucous, Iceland and Thayer's Gulls; notable species like
Snowy Owl, Northern Shrike, Bohemian Waxwing, Red and White-winged Crossbill,
Varied Thrush and Townsend's Solitaire and you begin to see the attractiveness
of a midwinter visit to these northern climes.
Still not convinced?
Well,
recent winter tours have also recorded surprises like Ivory Gull, Boreal Owl,
Gyrfalcon, Barrow's Goldeneye, Slaty-backed Gull, Mountain Bluebird,
Golden-crowned Sparrow, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.
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| Another unexpected bird: a female Northern Pintail |
As we travel through many remote areas of northeastern
Minnesota, our chances of turning up a few interesting mammals are quite good.
Past winter tours have recorded Snowshoe Hare, Beaver, Porcupine, Long-tailed
Weasel, Mink, Fisher, Moose and Gray Wolf. Spectacular species like Pine Marten
and Lynx are possible.
My Trip
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| Great Gray Owl |
Sounded great!
And, I really wanted to see and photograph a
Great Gray Owl.
So, I just decided to do it without trying to find anyone to go with me.
I booked to go by myself deciding to pay a single supplement so
I would have my own room. They set these tours up so that you can keep costs
down by sharing, but my night-owl photo processing habits can be disruptive to
others, so I thought I’d rather just be alone. And, the supplement isn't that much (not like a cruise ship!).
I booked the trip and flights to and from Minneapolis and went
on with my other activities. A quick word about booking with NatureScape – they
don’t take credit cards, just cash or check. That’s a bit frustrating because I
love my airline points and writing and mailing checks is such a pain. But,
that’s their policy.
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| Female Hairy Woodpecker |
After I got back from the Virgin Islands, I realized that I
had not received any final information from NatureScape, such as who was going
on the tour and where I was staying.
A couple of phone calls in, I finally got
the info and found out that I was the ONLY tour participant and that a new
guide had been assigned.
I finally found out where I was staying on the first
night, but never got hotel information about the other nights until I arrived.
I thoroughly enjoyed this (now private) tour and I also
loved my Pelagic tour, but on both, it was difficult to get definitive upfront
information. As a person who likes to create detailed itineraries, this is a
bit frustrating. Also, I felt bad that I was the only participant on the tour.
It was great for me (private tour, yay!), but I cannot imagine how NatureScape
can profit from one person and I know my tips for the guide can’t make up for
four more people regardless of how generous I was.
I could have possibly
switched to their next tour had they asked! Oh, well!
As I said, I really enjoyed the trip even if it was one of
the WORST birding winters in recent Minnesota history. Apparently, many birds
normally seen in large numbers decided to stay in Canada rather than travel all
the way to Minnesota this year. It seems that Canada had adequate food this
winter, so they passed on the good ol’ U.S.A.
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| Many birds move south for food; Common Redpoll eating Tamarack buds |
If I had done better research, I might have learned that
Great Gray Owls have irruptions just like Snowy Owls do and I would have waited
for an irruption year. But, despite a paucity of some birds and complete lack
of others, I had a great time. And, don’t get me wrong, I did see some new
birds, including the Great Gray Owl.
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| My Owl |
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| Alex in his element |
My guide, Alex Sundvall, was fantastic. I am 66. He is 22. But, we got along great, even sharing taste in music.
A life-long Minnesotan and
Wildlife Biology graduate from the University of Minnesota (with minors in
Environmental Science, Policy and Management; and Forest Ecosystem, Management
and Conservation), he knew his stuff. He has been birding since he was five (I
guess I am a really late bloomer in this hobby!) and he works during the late
summer/fall at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth as a counter and
interpreter during the fall migration.
Oh, and in 2016, he was awarded the
Young Birder Award by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union. Plus, he is
personable, funny, patient and a good driver on snowy/icy roads.
As I said, I flew into Minneapolis and met Alex for dinner.
The next morning, we had an early start, heading north to Duluth, which was
base for our adventure for the week. Some tours have participants fly into
Duluth; I am not sure why mine didn’t.
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| We did have to break for snow one morning |
I took my heaviest winter clothes because low temperatures were expected. And, I am happy to say, years of Arctic travel have paid off. My 20-year-old Sorel boots did a great job as did my G Adventures expedition jacket.
It never got above freezing and most of the time it was very cold; the lowest we saw was -22°F.Some days were cloudy (making photography difficult) and some were sunny (still making photography difficult because the cold causes atmospheric distortion). We did have to knock off
one morning for a massive snowstorm (that coincided with a county-wide snowplow
driver strike), but, believe me, we got plenty of birding in – hitting it
pretty hard almost every day from before dawn to sunset.
The birders and birding guides in northern Minnesota are all
well connected and generously text each other with sightings and tips. This was
very helpful as we covered a pretty large area in search of what turned out to
be pretty sparse birds. Plus, Alex posted instantaneously to eBird for every
sighting, using GPS coordinates. I need to get better at that. I always post
after the fact and my locations can be wonky.
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| Alex did all the posting, which made it much easier for me (oh, the joys of a guide!) |
Private Feeders
Our first birding stop was a private residence where a
Varied Thrush had been spotted. Now, this is a northern bird that I had seen
before – twice – once when a vagrant showed up in Colorado Springs and once on
my visit to Butchart Gardens following the Pelagic tour. Still, it’s a treat to
see this very pretty bird, even if the photography light was poor.
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| Varied Thrush |
While
walking around this guy’s yard, we also saw a very noisy Red Squirrel (a common
sight in the Minnesota winter) ...
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| Red Squirrel sounding the alarm |
Blue Jays ...
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| Blue Jay on a feeder |
A bunch of Black-capped Chickadees ...
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| A real winter bird |
A Brown
Creeper ...
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| Brown Creepers are tricky to catch; they match the trees and move quickly around the trunk |
A Red-Bellied Woodpecker ...
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| This bird made a very brief appearance |
There were also Downy Woodpeckers, Red-Breasted Nuthatches, American Crows and American Ravens that I didn't photograph. We saw lots of Crows and Ravens and a single Black-Billed Magpie during the week and I never photographed a single one; sorry Corvids!
I get all these birds except the Red-Bellied
Woodpecker and Varied Thrush at my house in winter. Was this trip not going to
deliver any lifers or was it going to be home birds in an exotic location?
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| At least the Varied Thrush was pretty, even if I had seen some before |
And, yes, I did say that we were walking around a guy’s
yard. Some folks in Minnesota are generous enough to make their feeders
available to birders. Some have donation boxes (and some have stopped stocking
feeders because some real jerks stole the donations and feeders – really!).
But, some folks out in the hinterlands are not so amiable. Some post NO BIRDING
signs and freak out if you even point your camera toward their houses. And, one
particularly crazy guy has been known to threaten or shoot at people who drive
slowly down “his” street (his street is a public road). Takes all kinds.
Anyway, back to birding …
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| Black-capped Chickadee |
Our next stop was another feeding station – Mary Lou’s ...
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| Mary Lou had a wide variety of feeders, this one attracting a female Evening Grosbeak |
... where we saw Downy Woodpeckers, female …
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| Female Downy Woodpecker |
... and male ...
The ONLY Evening Grosbeaks of the trip …
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| Male Evening Grosbeak |
Plus some Wild Turkeys …
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| Alex says these are not a common sight in winter |
A couple of White-tailed Deer …
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| A quick look and, then, retreat! |
And, the ONLY European Starling I bothered to photograph ...
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| European Starling |
Plus, more Blue Jays, Crows and Ravens and some House
Sparrows. Since this could get boring, I will stop mentioning common birds that
I didn’t photograph and just concentrate on the ones I did.
The Bog
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| Part of the Sax-Zim Bog |
Mary Lou’s was our first stop in the Sax-Zim Bog, where we
spent most of our time.
About 50 miles west of Duluth, Sax-Zim is cross-hatched
by many dirt and paved roads; some are plowed and, alas, some are not.
Three
hundred square miles of bog, aspen uplands, rivers, lakes, meadows, farms and
small towns, Sax-Zim Bog is prime habitat for boreal birds.
And, what is “boreal?” Cold temperate regions dominated by taiga and forests of birch,
poplar and conifers.
Most birding there is done from the road because, in summer,
it’s wet (it’s a bog!) and, in winter, the snow is deep.
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| Most roads were plowed ... |
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| ... some were not |
There are some
boardwalks, primarily in place because in the summer the bogs are too wet to walk in. So we got out of the car and off the road a few times, but not
many. Plus, it was cold!
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| A trail carved into the deep snow. |
During the winter, the Bog volunteers keep a number of feeders filled to attract (and feed) birds.
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| American Goldfinch at a Bog feeder |
They also drape deer carcasses over poles to provide natural suet. Of course, they can't do any of this the rest of the year because the Bog has Black Bears.
There was something magical about this environment. On the coldest days, the trees sparked with frost in the early morning ...
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| These trees looked like they were studded in diamonds |
... after the sun made its way above the trees ...
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| Sunrise |
The trees were covered in snow ...
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| The snow does some interesting things |
Which lay fairly deep in the ground ...
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| Can there be snow without outdoor furniture? |
Although I remember many of the road names, most of the time I wasn't sure exactly where we were. I was too busy looking for birds to contemplate a map. And, we zig-zagged and criss-crossed the whole time we were there.
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| The Bog covers a large area; Map: Friends of Sax-Zim Bog |
All, of course, in the pursuit of birds.
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| Black-backed Woodpecker |
The Forest
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| Paper birch |
We also birded in the Superior National Forest, traveling as
far north as five miles from Canada. The Superior National Forest is located in the Arrowhead Region of
Minnesota between the Canadian border and the north shore of Lake Superior.
The
area is part of the greater Boundary Waters region along the border of
Minnesota and Ontario, a historic and important thoroughfare in the fur trading
and exploring days of New France and British North America.
Superior National Forest covers over 3.9 million acres and
has over 445,000 acres of water, including 2,000 lakes and rivers, more than
1,300 miles of cold-water streams and 950 miles of warm-water streams.
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| We saw the forest in clouds and sunshine |
The
majority of the forest is multiple-use, including both logging and recreational
activities such as camping, boating, fishing and birding. Slightly over a quarter
of the forest is set aside as a wilderness reserve known as the Boundary Waters
Canoe Area (BWCA), where canoers can travel along interconnected fresh waters
near land as well as over historic portages once used by Native American tribes
and First Nations people, but later by European explorers and traders.
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| Driving was fine, despite heavy snow |
The forest contains a small slice of true boreal forest
(taiga) and a mixed conifer-hardwood forest known as The North Woods, a
transition province between the northern boreal forest and deciduous forests to
the south. Conifers include several varieties of pine, fir and spruce trees,
principal deciduous species are mountain ash, maple, aspen, oak and paper birch.
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| Superior National Forest; Map: Google Maps |
Forest animals include include White-tailed Deer, Moose,
Canadian Lynx, Black Bear and Gray Wolves (in fact, Northern Minnesota has the
largest population of Gray Wolves in the lower 48 states, with approximately
300-400 within the boundaries of the forest). We did see some Wolf tracks, but,
alas, no Wolves.
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| Gray Wolf tracks |
I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow of every sighting
in the Bog and the Forest, but I will go through some of the birds we saw
there.
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| The Forest has lots of conifers and lots of cone-eating birds including Red Crossbills |
In my next post, that is ...
Trip date: January13-22, 2020
Mary Lou’s was our first stop in the Sax-Zim Bog, where we
spent most of our time. 
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