Sax-Zim Bog Plus Weather

As the morning rolled around I could tell it was going to be special. The snow had some in from nowhere and it looked like the roads were going to suck. Meeting at the mall several of us setup for car pool and headed north at a slow click comparred to a desired speed. A few even turned back, but we made it to the Meadowlands safe. The group totalled in the 20's even with the weather and one woman even drove south from Ely. We got on the road then and started looking for birds. Clint very quickly got us started with a flock of Pine Grosbeak on HWY 7. That was a solid get considering the low numbers reported in the bog this year. The day then played out like a normal bog trip, we drove to a lot of locations and tried for all the target birds that we could. Low traffic roads were filled with birders doing the same as we zig zagged all over the place hitting feeder locations and known hunting grounds and lek's. The day was a mix of snow, fog, and great fun. It was a reminder of how fun car birding can be even though my preference is to be alone in the woods hunting for a bird sighting.

We picked up Evening Grosbeak by the dozens at Mary Lou's on 444, Boreal Chickadee on our 2nd trip to Admiral road feeders, Common Redpoll by the hundreds, along with many Pine Siskin. We also tracked down 3 total Black-billed Magpie flying from point to point, a few Rough-legged Hawk (including my 2nd dark morph), several Northern Shrike, and many Purple Finch as well.

The day was a great bog effort that really only saw me come up short on the birds I expected to come up short on.

Below is my pre-trip list with successes and misses.

1. Success: Common Eider

2. Success: Raven

3. Success: Northern Pintail

4. Success: Pine Siskin

5. Success: Common Redpoll

6. Red Crossbill

7. Success: Gray Jay

8. Great Gray Owl

9. Success: Purple Finch

10.Success: Evening Grosbeak

11.Success: Northern Hawk Owl

12. Thayers Gull

13.Success: Glaucous Gull

14. Greater Black Backed Gull

15.Success: Boreal Chickadee

16. Ruffed Grouse

17. Sharp Tailed Grouse

18. Snow Bunting

19.Success: Red-Breasted Nuthatch

20. Black-backed Woodpecker

21. Bohemian Waxwing

Maybe the only real dissapointments were missing on Snow Bunting, and both Grouse. I always have trouble with Grouse and feel that with a couple days effort they wouldn't be that hard. Also a bummer to come up empty on Great Gray Owl again. I'll keep trying until it happens though. The gull misses are to be expected with the wind situation and it just comes down to a coin flip. The day of the bog I heard word both Thayers and Greater Black-backed were found at the point with ease along with Iceland as well since the wind shifted and kept many in the water.

Now that I'm back I see Bohemian have showed up in a nice consistent location straight west of Two Harbors. Like I said, with a couple days I probably could have tracked down some misses and been in a pretty good state.