Refound the Black-backed Woodpecker this PM, actually found two females in
the same place and was able to observe them at the same time so I know that
they weren't moving around on me. Go into the tamarack, follow the path to
the right till you get to the area with a lot of bark chips on top of the
snow around the stripped trees. Stop and listed for the stripping, etc.
Also in the area both downy and hairy woodpeckers, chickadees, and a couple
of white-wing crossbill flyovers.
Follow Milts directions below with a minor correction that I have made on
them (a left turn off 2 onto 4, not a right.) I was able to carefully park
next to the driveway with fire number 35272 across the road from it. Don't
move very far off the road unless you want to call a tow truck.
The snow shoe path is just across the road from this driveway. Because of a
lot of snowshoe traffic the path is getting beaten down rather nicely and
you could walk on it without show shoes if you don't mind falling through
the crust occasionally. Snow shoes make it a lot easier and with the snow
shoes you can step off the trail occasionally without going up to your knees
in the snow. Walking off the path without snowshoes would be almost
impossible because of deep snow and hidden obstacles which would trip you.
Denny
Dennis and Barbara Martin
Shorewood, MN
[email protected]
Found a female Black-backed Woodpecker in a worked over stand of tamarack
within the St. Wendall Tamarack Bog SNA. You will need snowshoes to work
for this bird ~ 1/3mile deep into the bog. Find your way to St. Joseph,
MN, N on CR2, left on CR4 and after the road turns N, look for where I
entered the bog across from a long driveway 1/4 mile S of the SNA sign.
Parking not good... perhaps on nearby driveway or crossroad. Snowshoe my
trail to the tamarack edge and then deeper into the bog till you find the
active tree scrapes and see my stillness tracks. Also present, a family
of chickadees, a downy, a tree sparrow, (heard a couple flyover WW
Crossbill and probable Red Crossbill ("kip" sound I thought was a
squirrel, but I didn't see any squirrel tracks or evidence), and my first
owl of the year last night perched on the tamarack edge in the 5:20
twilight on my way out of the bog. mjb
----
Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net
Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
