Yesterday afternoon I saw a small flock of Bohemian Waxwings in a crabapple tree in Coleraine near the CR 10 detour.
This morning I found a larger flock of Bohemian Waxwings--maybe 100--by the Spur station in Bovey and a flock of maybe 40 flew over CR 434 near Trout Lake. So far the finches have been slow in my part of Itasca County. I hiked through about a mile and a half of spruce bog this morning without seeing ANY finches. There are some Pine Grosbeaks and Pine Siskins around, redpolls in much smaller numbers than the last couple of winters, I've only heard one report of Evening Grosbeaks in the area, and I have yet to see either crossbill species around here this winter. Maybe this cold weather will move them down. Otherwise, Gray Jays have been abundant and nearly every clump of large tamarack shows signs of recent Black-backed/Three-toed Woodpecker foraging--there were 2 Black-backeds found in November. I haven't seen any owls yet this winter, but a Snowy Owl was reported somewhere near Bowstring Lake last week. Shawn Conrad Bovey _________________________________________________________________ Get free, personalized commercial-free online radio with MSN Radio powered by Pandora http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001
