After Evan had gone to bed on Friday night, I went to work on figuring out how to post a message to the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union’s listserve, better known as MOU-Net.  I put out a plea to other birders in the Sax-Zim Bog to text or call us with any owl locations that day.  I was trying to increase our probability of finding one of these elusive birds.

The Team was up early Saturday morning to be able to get out to the Sax-Zim Bog at daylight.  The weather was not ideal as it was snowing quite heavily.  Unlike the prairie where we live, there was no accompanying wind, so visibility was fine for driving and the roads were just a little snow covered.  It didn’t take that long to get down to the Bog, but Evan kept asking, “Are we in the Bog yet?”  Finally, after several more miles and about ten more occurrences of that same question, we arrived at the Bog.  Everyone was alert and looking for birds even though we were fighting reduced visibility and a bum windshield wiper.  I think we were a little too over-anxious because my dad stopped the truck and said we had a hawk or an owl perched atop a dead tree.  I zoomed in with the camera and saw that our “owl” was just a chunk of the tree trunk that was connected to the lower trunk by a thin sliver of wood.  I took the picture and discarded it, but now I wish I would have kept it because a theme of false sightings started to occur…

We drove and drove and were not seeing any bird activity.  We had gone past the Admiral Road feeders and didn’t see a bird.  We drove around where Boreal Owls, Northern Hawk Owls, and Black-billed Magpies had been seen.  Eventually we were back on Co. Rd. 7 where we saw the eagles the previous night, and many of them, along with a bunch of American Crows and Common Ravens, were still there.  I couldn’t resist taking this picture even though it was snowing so hard.  We joked about the pecking pooping order of these birds throughout the day.  At least Evan got to hear these eagles as we had the windows rolled down while they were flying around and chattering the whole time.

After this we had gone down a road that was marked on our map as being a good location for Great Gray Owls.  We were optimistic.  But with every mile under our seats, the optimism started to fade.  We weren’t seeing any bird activity.  Evan was tired from traveling the day before and waking up early on this day.  He tried napping on the bench seat of my dad’s crew cab truck, but he just kept asking when it would be time to go back to Grandma’s house.  Oh boy.  We had come all this way and were only 45 minutes in, and the chief birder was ready to call it quits.  At just the right time, I spotted a Ruffed Grouse eating buds in the top of an aspen tree.  Perfect!  This perked Evan right up, and our little birder was back.  We talked about it and concluded that Evan had never seen a live grouse; he’s seen me come home with several dead ones over the years from hunting outings.  This was the first time my dad and I had ever witnessed one “budding.”  Ruffed Grouse are typically found on the ground.  It was a real treat for me to be able to watch this bird and its behavior.  Most of the times I see grouse, I am trying to squeeze the trigger…

Look at him crane his neck in the last picture to get a bud!

It dawned on me that part of Evan’s misery was being cooped up in the backseat with a limited view, so I invited him to sit in the front middle seat as we went down these lonely backwoods roads.  I think this kid’s day was made just from wearing no seat belt and peeing on the road.  What more do you need when you’re 6?

As we traveled on I caught sight of a Pileated Woodpecker fly across the road.  I have seen a lot of these across the state as I’ve started  to pay attention to birds.  We even had our first Pileated in the yard this year. They are huge – about as long as the Ruffed Grouse.  If you see one, you won’t forget it.  Down south they are sometimes referred to as God birds because many people see one and exclaim, “Great God!” The one pictured here is a male as indicated by his red “mustache.”

I was in the midst of trying to film a video of this woodpecker when my phone rang!  Every “knock-knock” sound of an incoming email or text got hearts racing and me scrambling for the phone with an excited, “What is it?!” from my companions.  Every time we hoped for a sighting in the Bog, but it was usually just spam or other unrelated MOU-Net posts.  This call, however, was from Steve, a fellow Knowledge Bowl coach back home.  It turns out he saw my message on MOU-Net.  Not only did we discover that we were both into birding because of my posting, but also that Steve was in the Bog just a week ago.  He gave me tips on where they found the Boreal and Northern Hawk Owls as well as Snowy Owls in Duluth.  Another one of his tips led us to one of the many bird-feeding stations in the Bog to check for Black-billed Magpies, a western bird that strays to the Bog – a potential lifer for us.

We pulled up to the Kelsey Feeding Station on Kelsey Whiteface Road and happened upon the caretaker of the feeders filling them up for the day.  This caretaker,Loretta, owns the land on which this feeding station is located.  She told us there were some deer at the end of the path who were eating at her feeders.  Evan wanted to check it out.  It felt good to break up all the driving by walking down this path.

This feeding station is one path in the woods about a hundred yards long with all kinds of fun, unique feeders lining the path.  It almost felt like being in a bird-feeding, art gallery. Check out the first “feeder” – did I mention it was unique?

Mark and Loretta began this feeding station just over a year ago.  As locals they were accustomed to all the birds in the area.  They didn’t realize how special these birds were until they started noticing all the people coming through.  Loretta told us how it was not uncommon to be following a car down Co. Rd. 7 at highway speeds only to have the car slam on the brakes and come to a sudden stop on the highway.  All four doors would fly open, the trunk would be popped, and out would come all these cameras as long as a person’s arm.  Occurrences like this got them to take notice of the birds in their own backyard.  Now Loretta is going through hundreds of pounds of bird feed.  There are donation boxes at her station to help keep this a good birding stop.  After watching some Common Redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks high in the trees, we moved on.  No magpies today.

We drove around some more but nothing really significant popped out.  The lack of birds caused me to see the tremendous beauty of the bog.  It is not beautiful as most people know northern Minnesota’s beauty with pristine lakes, rock faces, and towering pines.  Instead, there is a different, quieter beauty here.

We continued our chase for birds and saw this little bunch.  They were just European Starlings, which we see by the thousands at home.  However, their positioning in these branches reminded me of the structure of DNA and how the lives of birds and birders are intertwined in this magical land.

I found the landscape of the bog fascinating.  There were open hayfields throughout.  No wonder the town nearby was called Meadowlands.  As we went by some of these farm landscapes, I think we were getting delirious and desperate for a good bird sighting.  Finally!  A Snowy Owl….oh wait, it’s a rock.

We drove on.  It was time to go.  The rest of my family was going to pick us up in Cotton to bring us down to Duluth for our little family mini-vacation.  There was one last ray of hope of seeing an owl.  We were going to exit the Bog on Arkola Road and go by the spot where the last Boreal Owl had been seen a week ago.  We got closer to the road and realized that there would have to be other Bog trips to get our owls.  Oh well, at least it’s close to our families.  Plus, we got to see this guy on our way out.

Evan and I are relatively new to the sport of birding.  As I’ve started this blog, I have gotten into online birding communities and started following other bird bloggers.  I started to pick up on a certain holy ground of birders nationwide – the Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota.  This unique area attracts certain species of birds that are difficult, if not impossible, to find in other parts of the country.  This area is comprised of state, county, and private land and draws in hoards of birds and birders.  One of the big draws of the Bog are the visiting boreal species in the winter from the far north – the Boreal Owl, the Snowy Owl, the Northern Hawk Owl, the Great Gray Owl, and several other bird species.  Imagine my surprise when I find out that this Bog, mentioned in the movie The Big Year and featured in the New York Times, is only 45 minutes from my parents’ house.

Part of my online birding included monitoring the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union’s rare bird alerts. It turns out that this winter was an irruption year for the Boreal Owl.  Lots of theses owls were popping up on the North Shore of Lake Superior and in the Bog.  They are rare and hard to find, but this year many got to add it to their life lists.  People flew in to Duluth from California, Florida, and Missouri just to see this owl.  One woman broke her 16 year curse of always just missing this owl and finally saw the bird.  We had to go.  With the musical over, we were finally in the clear for a family trip Up North.  The problem, however, was that the sightings of these owls had dropped off, and the owls were most likely already en route to the north.  People had still found some the previous weekend, so we were going to give it a try.

Friday happened to be Evan’s birthday.  Since I was done with work early that day, we decided to surprise Evan by picking him up early from school and taking him on a grand birding adventure.  He had no idea what we’d been scheming.  While his friends were learning math, he was halfway to Grandma’s house and a birder’s paradise.

When we travel home, we usually just want to get there.  It’s a long trip.  I learned that the Sax-Zim Bog is bordered by U.S. Highway 53, our main travel route north, so instead of 53, why not head north through the Bog?  I pulled off into the Bog at Independence and made my way north on St. Louis Co. Rd. 7.  As we cruised through this landscape of scrubby forests and swampy bogs, we were on full alert for these species.  Even Melissa put down her school work to help watch for any bird movement.

Five hours in a car is a long time for little kids – and big people, too – so as much as I wanted to take my time, we were birding at 65 MPH. We came by a lowland, marshy area and BAM!  There were Bald Eagles everywhere!  Fighting, eating, perching – it was crazy to say the least.  I screeched to halt on the shoulder and flew out of the car with the camera.  Melissa had anticipated such a move, so she had been carrying it uncased, lense cap removed and powered on.  I was snapping away at what I thought was a Rough-legged Hawk because I had heard they were in the Bog, but I later learned it was just an immature Bald Eagle.

While I took pictures of the “hawk,” Melissa and Evan counted eagles.   They figured there were 10-12 different birds.  Most were mature adults, but there were a couple immatures with them.  Beside the amazing sights were the classic sounds of eagle chatter everywhere in the marsh.  My passengers never heard them because their windows were rolled up.

This was quite an introduction to the Bog.  With hearts racing and seat belts buckled, anticipation started to build for the next day of full birding in the Bog as we continued on our journey to Grandma’s.  But before our big day, we had a little birthday celebration for the chief birder.  Note the birding vest – I don’t think he took it off since he got it last weekend from his Aunt Sharon as a birthday gift.

Today was the final performance of Willmar Middle School’s production of The Little Mermaid. That meant we were getting Mom back from her crazy rehearsal and production schedule. This weekend the kids had plenty to keep them occupied while Mom was away.  Melissa’s parents, nieces, aunt, grandma, and a second cousin made the long trip down from up north to see the musical and celebrate Evan and Marin’s birthdays which are both next week.  Our kids got to hang out with their cousins and spend some quality time with them and their grandparents in a hotel all weekend, even spending two nights at the hotel away from home.  Cousins, presents, swimming, bowling, a musical performance and lots of good food.  Needless to say, the kids didn’t miss us  too much.  Today, though, Melissa’s family hit the road, and it was just the three of us again while Melissa did her last show and post-production party.  After the kids each delivered their mom some flowers after the final performance, the three of us hit the road for a birding adventure while Mom did her post-production party and clean up.  This afternoon we were following up on a birding tip I had gotten from a coworker last week.  This coworker, Terry, had told us he had been near Paynesville and seen 300-400 Wild Turkeys on a hillside one morning.  Wow!  So he drew me a map so we could investigate ourselves.

Right away on our outing we started seeing Horned Larks, and we never stopped seeing them.  Every county road we traveled we would flush little flocks of 6-10 birds every mile or so.  A week ago this was a life bird for us, so they are still pretty exciting to see. They are always a surprise to see on the highway because you can’t really see them until they flush.  They like to hang out in the exposed grass just off the shoulder.

We made our way up toward Paynesville.  There wasn’t much for birds, so I started commenting on other things I saw.  I saw a skidloader and told the kids, “There’s a Bobcat.”  Of course this confused Marin who thought I was talking about a lion.  Evan then went on a discourse explaining to his almost 3-year-old sister that “Bobcat” is just a name brand for a skidloader and that real bobcats don’t live in our area.  I didn’t follow all of the conversation, but he was a treasure-trove of information, true or otherwise.  Marin, the budding conversationalist, proves she is listening by asking relevant questions, such as, “And if you  see a bobcat, you run like the dickens?”

I had forgotten my map at home, so I was going on memory.  Not good.  I made one wrong turn and then proceeded to go down another road that seemed to fit somewhat with my memory of the map.  I was frazzled not knowing for sure if I was in the right location.  It was a long trip up to this area, so I didn’t want to miss out.  Then we came up over a hill, and there was our target bird – the Wild Turkey.

These guys quickly split into the woods on both sides of the road.  These last two look like they are debating which way they need to go.

Even if we didn’t make it to the spot we were supposed to go, the trip was already a success.  As we kept driving, though, the scenery started matching Terry’s description perfectly and I knew we were in the right spot.  Taking the next turn, we found another group of seven Wild Turkeys.

Turkeys sure are skittish and can run fast.  I had to photograph them on sports mode.  Before long these seven were out of sight. We went down the road a couple more miles before deciding to turn around.  I had found these turkeys again on the right side of the road and stopped to photograph them again.  Evan then screamed out, “Dad! Turkeys!”  “Yes, Evan I see them.  Those are the ones we saw before.”  “No, Dad, look on the other side!”  Sure enough, he was right.  There on the hillside where Terry had seen the hundreds of birds a week earlier stood many huge birds out in the field.  I don’t know what it was with the number seven, but here is another group.

Here is a shot to the left of the photo above.  The famed hillside that held hundreds of birds is further to the left yet.

After viewing all these turkeys (we estimate that we saw 25-30 in these sightings), we drove a couple of miles into the town of Paynesville to get a treat.  Marin was becoming impatient with us birders, and  so she needed something to break up the trip. With treats in hand, we were ready for more bird action.

We decided to head back to the same turkey spot afterward just in case those throngs of turkeys that Terry saw would come out for an evening meal.  No luck.  There were a few of those turkeys still lingering about.  We didn’t get to see the swarms of monstrous birds we’d heard about, but we had a successful turkey-outing nonetheless.  It also excited me to see so much turkey action within a couple miles of where I’ll be turkey hunting in April.

We made our way home and found a pair of Bald Eagles soaring on the south side of Lake Koronis.  Other than that, we saw hundreds and hundreds of Horned Larks.  I did spy a bird perched on a wire hunting the larks – the Northern Shrike again.   All our other sightings of this bird were pre-camera.  Well, even with a camera in hand, this one gave us the slip before I could get a shot.  It appears this is my nemesis bird.

As we rode home, I was asked over and over to turn up the volume on Radio Disney.  As a Justin Bieber song played, Evan asked me if I liked him.  I replied that I didn’t care for him to which he said, “Ah, why not? Justin Bieber’s so awesome!”  Maybe it was the Bieber music, maybe it was the good birding trip, but we went out to look at turkeys and ended up coming home with a couple.