Hello All, A quick update on NE Aitkin County from yesterday. Cold and windy in the AM, colder in the PM. We had our coldest night of the year last night--our Northern Flying Squirrels didn't even show up last night!
Visited the Hedbom Forest Road, found a surprisingly large number of cooperative American Three-toed Woodpeckers--SIX!--a new high for this location. Only one Black-backed for the day, in a new location, was a reversal of the expected species numbers. Fly-by Red Crossbills and Evening Grosbeaks at our feeders. Slow Day. I have updated the Hedbom Forest Road account and map on our website www.naturescapenews.com click on the Red-breasted Nuthatch/Hedbom Forest Road in the upper right-hand corner. You can click on the map for an easily printable version. You can also download a copy of the original Hedbom Forest Road account from our soon to be released (DVD packaged to the printer yesterday!) birding guide to Aitkin County. Several people have asked about routes through the area so I thought a general reply to the list is in order. For those looking for the rosy-finches in Cloquet, go north on hwy 33 to hwy 2, go west on 2 to Floodwood and then follow the map from our website to the woodpeckers and Great Gray Owls. At the west end of the Hedbom Forest Road turn left/south and go about 9.5 miles to Aitkin County Road 14. Turn right/west and go west to Palisade. North on County Road 5 to County Road 18 gets you into the Rough-legged Hawk, Great Gray Owl and, 2.5 miles west of Pietz's Road, more woodpeckers. You can then continue west on CR 18 to Hwy 169, go south to Aitkin County Road 3 and turn right/west to the previously described locations for additional Black-backed and Am. Three-toed Woodpeckers. All the winter finches have been found along this route in the last four or five days. Pine Grosbeaks seem to be more easily found away from feeders so far this winter. Sharp-tailed Grouse, as described by Kim Eckert, can be found at their usual hang-outs (i.e. north and south of Tamarack, south of Palisade and north of Gun Lake). Hope this answers everybody's questions. See you in the field. Until then...Good Birding! Kim & Cindy Risen Tamarack, Aitkin County www.naturescapenews.com
