March 19, 2017 - Sax Zim Bog

On March 11, Diana and I and several of our friends were given a tour of the Sax Zim Bog by Sparky Stensaas. This is an area of northern Minnesota that is famous for attracting boreal bird species in the winter. There is a lot of natural area to explore and also some feeder set-ups that attract winter finches. This male Evening Grosbeak was photographed at Mary Lou’s feeders.

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Here’s a female Evening Grosbeak, also seen at Mary Lou’s feeders. As is true of many female birds, her plumage is much more subtle than the male’s. Notice how well she blends in with the grass. Grosbeaks, with their large and sturdy beaks, are aptly named.

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It’s getting kind of late in the season to see Pine Grosbeaks, but we did find a couple of females like this one. Pine Grosbeaks are slightly smaller than Robins. We did not see any male Pine Grosbeaks.

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There are several groups of Sharp-tailed Grouse in the bog. Our initial sighting of one group required a scope to get a decent look because they were quite far away. As we started to drive to another road for a better look, the whole group of grouse started flying toward our initial position. They ended up in a yard right next to the road so we had a very good look at them.

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The grouse were feeding on the ground under the homeowner’s bird feeders. That was unusual enough but then one of the grouse actually flew up into the feeder.

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Rough-legged Hawks are a winter visitor to the area and we saw several of them soaring over the bog.

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Sparky knew just where to take us to see this Northern Hawk Owl, one of the highlights of the trip.

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When the owl flew across the road and landed in a different tree, it was so well camouflaged that I had a hard time spotting it.

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We thought Loretta’s feeders had attracted a rare species but it turned out to be an inanimate object.

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