Jan. 10, 2021 - Sax Zim Bog

About three weeks ago, I made a trip to the Sax Zim Bog, one of the premier birding locations in Minnesota. It’s a 300-square-mile area located about 50 minutes northwest of Duluth. According to the Friends of Sax Zim website ( http://www.saxzim.org) it’s the largest bog at the southern end of the boreal forest. As you can see, it was snowing hard when I arrived.

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Meadowlands is one of the small towns located within the Sax Zim Bog, and they are very happy to have birders visit their part of Minnesota.

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There are several private homes that have elaborate feeder setups like this one to attract birds, especially in the winter. They welcome birders to drive in and watch birds at the feeders. Most birders leave a donation to help pay for the seed.

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The Friends of Sax Zim Bog also host some feeders at various places in the bog. This one is located on Admiral Road. It has gobs of peanut butter on the horizontal stick and a set of deer ribs hanging from the left side. As usual, Red Squirrels are happy to share the food with the birds.

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Sax Zim Bog is well known for attracting owls in the winter, and there really is an Owl Avenue in the bog. I didn’t see any owls the day I was there, but Owl Avenue is where I did see my very first Great Gray Owl way back in the year 2000.

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A Snowy Owl was seen in this field the day before I got there, and I was excited when I thought I spotted it. However, when I looked through my binoculars, I realized this was just a pile of snow.

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The Friends group has purchased several parcels of land within the bog to preserve them for the wildlife. This attractive sign is at Winterberry Bog, the name given to one of those parcels.

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The dried wildflower stalks were decorated with a fresh coat of snow.

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The snow gave a nice wintery look to the trees and cattails. Next week I’ll show you some of the birds I saw in the Bog.

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