top of page
.jpg)
Pine Marten (2024)
Northern Hawk Owl
The Northern Hawk Owl is rare in Minnesota and really tough to find in the 300 Square miles that the Sax-Zim bog occupies. Kent and I have 3, week-long trips to the Bog looking for the Hawk Owl and Great Gray owl which remained elusive.
Evening Grosbeak
A boreal forest bird that can be found in the bog. It arrived late this year (2023) with only a few "resident" birds being seen. Then the week of our arrival a mass "incursion" arrived with thousand of birds! They love the black spruce and where ever there was black spruce there were a LOT of birds!
Black Capped Chickadee: Plenty of these cute little birds, but no Boreal Chickadees despite a few being seen. We were just not in the right place at the right time!
Ruffed Grouse:
American Crow:
Kent Johson and I ventured to the Sax-Zim Bog in northern MN. The week of Dec. 13th 2021, and in March of 2023 and 2024
Sax-Sim is about 45 minutes North/west of Duluth and is part of the boreal forest and boreal bog and is a critical groundwater supply to Lake Superior. At over 300 square miles it can add a LOT of water!!!
We specifically went for owls. Specifically, the Great Gray Owl, which we did not see and for the Snowy Owl which was visiting from the artic. We have also seen the very rare Northern Hawk Owl on the last 2 trips.
Snowy Owl
The highlight of the December 2021 trip where the Snowy Owls. These visitors from the arctic come down when their food source, voles, and lemmings are on a decline.
Snowy Owl stands 21 to 26 inches tall and has a wingspan of over 5 ft !
This bird was at least 150 yards away from us but it can easily see us. They can spot a vole at over 100 yards away! I had to add the 2x converter to my 500 mm PF lens (for a total of 1000mm!) to get the shot on a tripod of course and wired remote for NO shake when I took the shot.
1/500 sec. at f/11 (so the truck and owl would be in focus), ISO 1250.
Pine Grosbeak
The Pine Grosbeak is a big boreal finch, widespread in spruce and fir forests of the North. They summer in the far northern boreal forests of Canada and Alaska and come to Sax-Zim for the winter months.
Gray Jay
Many Canadians refer to Perisoreus canadensis not as the Gray or Canada Jay, but as the Whiskey Jack. That name likely stems from the Cree wisikejack or wisakedjak, an intelligent trickster in First Nations lore.
As you can see they have a strong preference for the deer rib cages that are hung at many of the feeders in the area.
Pine Squirrel
The red squirrel (Tamiascurus hudsonicus) is also called the chickaree or the pine squirrel. The three common names for this animal describe its general appearance, active vocalizing habits, and preferred habitat.
A very common inhabitant in the boreal forest and bog and they really give you the what for when you walk into their territory!
bottom of page