I spent Saturday afternoon birding around Sax Zim today. Here?s what I found (and some of what I didn?t), more or less in order.
12:00 ? 12:30 pm ? Co Rd. 133. Shrike flying, presumably Northern. 12:30 ? 1:00 pm ? Spruce Road, first mile or so: Black-capped Chickadee, Gray Jay, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, several Common Ravens, Redpoll overflight. Feeding Station on Spruce Road: many Evening Grosbeaks (>40), Pine Grosbeaks (>30), Common Redpolls (+/-20) (and maybe a Hoary Redpoll ? but take that ID with a pinch of grit for your gizzard). Also, Blue Jays (2), Black-capped Chickadees (3-5), & a Hairy Woodpecker (female). around 1:30 pm. end of spruce road. no Black-billed Magpies (or anything else, for that matter). Highway 7, including first trip out Nichols Lake road: Common Ravens, some American Crows in the ditch, and a couple of Bald Eagles (just south of Byrnes Greenhouses on the east side of Hwy 7), a Gray Jay, and another Pileated Woodpecker. Finally, a Northern Hawk Owl, about 0.5 miles south of Stone Lake Road, on the west side of Highway 7, quite far off the road, maybe 0.25-0.5 miles west. 2:30 pm Stone Lake Road: Gray Jay. 2:30:3:00 pm ? Admiral Road. Nothing much, except a few Black-capped Chickadees. 3:15 pm ? 4:00 pm ? MacDavitt Road looking for woodpeckers. Got very nice looks at a Northern Shrike, but no woodpeckers. 4:15 pm. Black-billed Magpie about 0.1 miles east of intersection of Kolu & MacDavitt. 4:30 pm. Back to Nichols Lake Road, and I saw a Great Gray Owl perched on a tangled Paper Birch snag. I stood and watched it for about 20 minutes before it flew away to the south in the failing light. All in all a great afternoon of birding. Thanks to all who are posting detailed information on bird finding in Sax Zim this year! Matt Etterson Duluth ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
