Today, Sunday, I went up to Sax-Zim for a gorgeous morning, with no wind, nice sunshine, and lots of owls.
Shortly after arriving I encountered my first Northern Hawk-Owl, on Hwy 52, 2.4 miles east of Hwy 7, about 1.4mi east of cty rd 755 (Peary Rd). Also close to this location was a Rough-legged Hawk. Both were very close to the road (on trees right adjacent to the edge of the road). Both of these sitings were around 7:45-8am Before these sitings, I drove up Hwy53 a few miles past Cotton and found two Northern Hawk-Owls. One was at MileMarker 43.9 (.9 miles north of MM43), and the second was at MM44.5. These were around 7:30am Driving up Hwy 7 I encounted 2 cars stopped looking at a Great-Grey Owl off in the distance. I saw it was a Great-Grey, but it flew before I got a decent look. This was at 5.5miles north of Hwy52. This was around 8:10-8:15am or so. Driving down Admiral Rd I found two Northern Hawk-Owls. One was 4mile south of Zim Rd (Cty 27) and the other was 4.9mi S of Cty27. The second one was being harassed by 2 Black-billed Magpies. Driving back north I just missed getting good views at a Great-Grey which just flew (according to the 4 people that got great views) and disappeared deep into the woods. This was about 3.5 miles south of Cty27. Driving south on McDavitt from Cty27 another Northern Hawk-Owl was spotted in the distance on the western side of the road 3.1mile south of Cty27. After this I decided to head home as I wanted to catch the afternoon football games, so around 12:30pm I started heading back. The last truly interesting sighting of the day was 4 Ruffed Grouse that flew over I169 just south of Milaca. Other birds seen in the bog include Gray Jays, Hairy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Rough-legged Hawks, 1 Red-tailed Hawk along Hwy53 near MM46, and several Bald Eagles (1 on Hwy53 around MM45 and 1 on Admiral Rd about 5.5miles south of Cty27. Chris
