Birding the Bog -- Day 2

Our second day in the Sax Zim Bog was another amazing day. We started early, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sharp-tailed Grouse as they moved off of their lek. The big birds of open plains like Sharp-tailed Grouse and Greater Prairie-chickens find areas called leks to perform elaborate courtship displays from.
These leks seem to have some importance to the birds even outside the breeding season, because in the dead of winter they were still seen in the area with some regularity.

So, I plugged in the GPS coordinates for the lek area and off we went. However, the final stretch of road had not been plowed! The now didn't look too deep though, so I decided to try it; that was a mistake! The car moved about 20 feet into the snow and stopped.

Luckily, I had guessed from the outset that Minnesota snow might not be the best terrain for my little Honda Civic, so I had a snow shovel and kitty litter stashed in the trunk. A little digging, and we were back on the plowed road.

We continued to the lek on our detour route, and were able to find the birds feeding on birdseed in front of a house! I took some video of the grouse feeding in the snow:

Check out those feathered feet! Not only are they warming, they also help the birds walk on the snow. It was a ton of fun to watch the grouse feeding and chasing each other around. After awhile, they moved back out into the fields, and we headed to our next spot, the feeders where we'd found Evening Grosbeaks the previous day.

On our drive across the Bog, we stumbled on a group of Wild Turkeys. These birds are common across most of the United States, but finding them is always fun!

Wild Turkeys glaring at the camera

At the feeders, we found many more birds that the previous day. Evening Grosbeaks topped the trees, and Common Redpolls flew in circling swarms. We also found a few additional birds, like Red-breasted Nuthatch and an awesome pair of Black-billed Magpies. We spent some time waiting for more birds and chatting with another birder. This birder had really outdone us in the distance department; he revealed that he and his family had traveled all the way from Arkansas! He gave us a solid tip on another bird we were hoping for, so we headed out after them.

A tiny Red-breasted Nuthatch peers around a feeder

A sharp Black-billed Magpie posted up on a tree

On the east side of the Bog, we parked near another set of feeders and waited for the birds to come in. It only took a few minutes before I scored another life bird! Brightly-colored Pine Grosbeaks dropped down from the trees to feed. The males of this species are a bright pinkish red, while the females are a more muted yellow. Against the snow, they both looked brilliant! I was able to get some close images by creeping closely with the car and shooting from the window. The birds gave me some wary looks, but they seemed to know that I wasn't any sort of threat to them. After the grouse, I was up to two life birds already for the day! I took a few more pictures and we decided to chase some more birds.

Pine Grosbeaks with Common Redpolls

This time, we headed toward the south end of Sax Zim, with woodpeckers on our mind. The first place we stopped was just a roadside pull-off. We quickly noticed a trail of footprints in the snow, so we followed them into the pines. After a short walk, we started to hear telltale tapping in the distance. We had already seen Hairy Woodpeckers in the Bog, but we were hopeful that this was a different species. When we finally found the source of the tapping, we were not disappointed! A silky black bird was scraping the bark off the pines just over our heads: a Black-backed Woodpecker!

Totally focused on digging out food, the Black-backed Woodpecker shows off his yellow crown

We were on a roll! We headed toward one of the newer parts of Sax Zim, the Warren Nelson Memorial Bog. Our hope was to find a close cousin of the Black-backed Woodpecker, so we were listening closely for the soft tapping of these birds. We turned up two more Black-backed Woodpeckers, and then we found our target: the elusive American Three-toed Woodpecker! The bird seemed to be oblivious to our presence, and I took a ton of pictures, and even some video.

While looking for some other birds, Daniel spotted a raptor perched up in a tree. A quick looked confirmed our smallest American hawk, the Sharp-shinned Hawk! These little raptors are bird-hunting machines, so we hoped that the woodpeckers we found had moved on. After a few minutes, the Sharpie flew out of sight into the pines. As often happens when these hawks appear, the Bog got very quiet. With all of the birds tucked away, we decided to move on to see what else the area had to offer.

Locking eyes with a Great Gray Owl!

I've mentioned our luck this day had been fantastic, and the hits kept on coming! We happened on another Great Gray Owl, hunting from a stretch of road on the south edge of the Bog. This was a bird we'd never seen until yesterday, and now we were finding them without even trying! We snapped a few pictures and then let him continue his hunt. As we cruised along, I spotted a "lump" high in the top of a tree. It wasn't an owl, but I had a sneaking suspicion that we wouldn't want to miss it. So, I parked the car and we jumped out to get a closer look. When we got to the base of the tree, there was no doubt: we'd found a porcupine! He was chewing off the soft twigs at the top of the tree, completely unbothered by our presence below. I'd only had a brief encounter with a nocturnal porcupine before, so this was a real treat. For Dan, it was a life mammal! I took some video of the hungry rodent and we were back in the car, seeing what else we could luck into.

The mammal theme held for a bit as we drove by some deer, and Dan's sharp eyes caught a muskrat scampering over the snow. We also found some Ruffed Grouse feeding high in a tree, but they disappeared too quickly to get pictures. We stopped back at the Visitors' Center to check their feeders and enjoyed close looks at Gray Jays and tiny Black-capped Chickadees. They were a little more willing to pose than the grouse, so I snapped a few pictures.

If you look carefully, you can see this chickadee's tongue!

Gray Jays feasting on a piece of venison. The staff collect road-killed deer and make sure the meat doesn't go to waste.

At this point, we felt like we'd had as successful a day as possible and decided to call it a day. We drove back through the bog, just in case there was anything else that we could add to our list. A turn down what appeared to be a less-traveled road scored us another incredible bird as Daniel shouted "Barred owl!" We stopped just in time to see the owl float back into the cover of the trees; no opportunity for a photo, but what a great find! We were both surprised at how small the Barred Owl appeared after seeing the enormous Great Gray Owls in the Bog.

We grabbed some McDonald's and got the oil changed in the car, then headed back to the hotel. It was early, but we were already planning to be up early the next morning for more of Minnesota's awesome sights!