2008 Tour Narrative
In Brief: This year’s “Minnesota in Winter” was nothing short of fabulous: mild temperatures, little wind, and just enough snow to create the winter-wonderland experience. Among the highlights were fabulous views of three species of grouse (including 4 Spruce Grouse), 3 Snowy Owls, a Northern Hawk Owl that we watched catch a meadow vole, splendid studies of Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers, and one of the best finch years in recent memory—including no fewer than 4 Hoary Redpolls! That’s not to mention the Superior (Wisconsin) gulls: Slaty-backed (!), Glaucous, Iceland, and Thayer’s! All that in little more than an extended winter weekend!
In Detail: Only minutes after pulling away from the parking garage we discovered a Northern Shrike—in fact, we hadn’t even left the airport! It was a harbinger of what would prove to be our best year ever for this species, with at least 21 Northern Shrikes on the tour. But the highlight of our Twin Cities airport experience was a young male Snowy Owl that flew in minutes before we were going to leave for Duluth. We had superb scope views while planes whizzed by on the runways.
Among my favorite roads in all of Minnesota is Lake County Road 2. The peaceful winter scenery never fails to elicit comparisons to Christmas card imagery. It’s a great mammal road, and over the years we’ve seen Moose, Wolf, and Lynx. This year mammals were limited to chattering Red Squirrels, but we had great success with our primary target—Spruce Grouse! In fact, the second bird of the day was a stunning male Spruce Grouse that fed along the road. Once when a vehicle passed, it even used our vehicle for cover! We drove a few more miles and succeeded in finding a cadre of three female Spruce Grouse, their intricate plumage providing superb camouflage when they flew into the spruces to feed.
As mentioned, this was an amazing finch year, and aside from the hardy Black-capped Chickadees, our most frequent companions were Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls. Indeed, there is perhaps no better place to watch Pine Grosbeaks than Minnesota in winter, and we saw several flocks, many of which we enjoyed at our leisure as they fed. Pine Grosbeaks regularly come to northeastern Minnesota in large numbers, but redpolls fluctuate from year to year. The irregular nature of redpolls adds something almost magical to redpoll encounters. At times flocks will quickly wheel overhead, disappearing as quickly as they appeared. But this year a few feeding stations provided excellent opportunities for us to study Common Redpolls—and their less common ghostly northern neighbor, Hoary Redpoll. By the end of the trip, each of us was able to (correctly!) pick out Hoary Redpolls from the Commons. We also had the largest number of Evening Grosbeaks ever since I’ve been leading this tour. Male Evening Grosbeaks beside male Pine Grosbeaks—life just doesn’t get any better!
If Lake County Road 2 is one of my favorite roads, the Sax-Zim Bog is probably my favorite birding locale. There are few places where driving down the road elicits such anticipation. Even excluding the aforementioned finches, Sax-Zim was superb. Gray Jays were more widespread than I can recall. Bald Eagles were the most common raptor, as is often the case. Woodpeckers put on a particularly brilliant show this year, with a male American Three-toed Woodpecker feeding at eye level for so long that we eventually walked away from him. Directions to a Black-backed Woodpecker were limited to “along Admiral Road” and “deer carcass.” We found a deer carcass, got out, and immediately heard a woodpecker foraging. Apparently the directions weren’t all that bad … a female Black-backed Woodpecker gave us amazing views. Minutes later, the direction-giver drove up and told us we were at the wrong deer carcass! The deer carcass down the road provided us with endless entertainment as Black-capped Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches flew in for venison suet. Our second pair of Boreal Chickadees foraged around us calling.
Perhaps the chief draw at Sax-Zim, however, is the owls. Our first Northern Hawk Owl sighting was right alongside the road, and the bird allowed us to have full-frame scope views! The next day we saw one 7 miles away, and this one provided my highlight of the trip. As we watched, the hawk owl flew some 400 yards from a tree to a snag, where it lingered for about three-quarters of a second before diving down the ground. Seconds later it flew to another snag with a vole that it quickly devoured!
A variety of non-coniferous habitats also offered exceptional birding. Open areas and birch and aspen forests east of Duluth provided us with several Ruffed Grouse, a single Sharp-tailed Grouse, a flock of Snow Buntings, and a stunning white male Snowy Owl. Just outside the FedEx facility at the Duluth airport, we were treated to exceptional views of another Snowy Owl, this one a young female. The open water of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior) hosted an unprecedented flock of 18 Horned Grebes—perhaps the first February record for Minnesota! And on the south end of the lake, over the state line into Wisconsin, we were treated to exceptional studies of gulls at the aptly named Superior Landfill. Glaucous Gulls are often present at this time of year, and this year was no different. Other highlights were adult and first-year Thayer’s Gulls, our first Kumlien’s (Iceland) Gull on the tour, and the surprise of the tour—an adult Slaty-backed Gull. Then, far too soon, our brief foray into the Northland was over.
Was it really only 4 1/4 days of birding?
Chris Wood
Updated: February 2008