Good Birds at -40

I set out at 4:00AM back on Saturday morning getting picked up by Kevin Smith and Gerry Hoekstra for a northbound adventure. They had been planning a Koochiching County circuit and invited me along knowing I needed all counties for my 10K year effort. As light was just starting to come up in Virginia, MN (St. Louis county) we found some warm water outflow on a lake in town and noted some basic water birds (plus a Hooded Merganser) with an Otter being attacked by a Bald Eagle.

We made a stop in Cook also to drive Johnson road hoping for woodpecker magic, but managed just some Pine Grosbeak and a Canada Jay for the effort. We eventually made it to Koochiching and started racking up good birds with double-digit negative temps the entire time.

My first visual interaction with a flock of White-winged Crossbills happened and it was amazing. The light was perfect and we got to see male and female birds feeding on spruce/fir cones with some of my pics showing some cool tongue shots as the birds extracted seeds.

This trip featured Pine Grosbeak nearly everywhere we went in the county, it was amazing how many have come south this year in the northern forest areas. We continued to put up quality birds including both Redpolls and Pine Siskins in the expected strong numbers. Even an American Robin in Big Falls was present to round out the numbers. Though we dipped on key boreal woodpeckers we had plenty of quality up into International Falls with a flock of Bohemian Waxwing showing at one of our last locations. The birds flew shortly after being found and actually headed to Canada at that point over the Rainy River.

The next morning we woke up to -40 degrees and car doors that had frozen seals making door latches close very poorly. It was crazy as even the neoprene strap on Kevin's bins froze stiff. The biggest bonus though was stepping out of the hotel in the morning and hearing Red Crossbill calling from nearby stand of pines. We weren't able to get on the birds with optics, but the calls were good as Pine Grosbeak and Siskin joined the morning chorus. These are some hearty birds for sure.

We began driving to Beltrami County at this point and got Northern Shrike and Ruffed Grouse on the way for a couple more bonus Koochiching birds giving us 25. Beltrami was pretty cooperative also as we pulled in some nice birds, but dipped on Boreal Chickadee and Black-backed Woodpeckers. Some city feeders gave us good hits on winter finches though and we stopped for some open water hold overs giving us Hooded Merg, Ring-necked Duck, and Pied-billed Grebe as really tough January birds for the area.

It was at this time we tempted fate and drove to Callaway towards the incoming snow storm in hopes of picking up the Brambling that had been reported by a home owner. We made the 1.5 hour drive and picked up some Becker County Redpolls on the way. As we got to the driveway snow was starting to fly and within minutes we pulled in Pine Siskin, Purple Finch, and several others for key Becker county winter birds. In short order the Brambling (European and Siberian resident) dropped down to the feeder station and gave us great looks.

We lingered for a short period and then got on our horse looking to outrun the storm. It snowed most of the time we were on the road (4 hours) but we stayed at the front edge pretty well and the roads were great. Kevin Smith drove the entire weekend and provided me with some great non-driving rest time for the second time this year. I owe him big time at this point and can easily say he's helped me get a lot of tics this year that I may have missed otherwise.