I went out this morning to tend to the suet feeders on Alder Road. It turned out to be a pretty good morning to be out!
At the feeder north of Middle Creek (3.2 miles after you turn on Alder from CR 48), I had a Boreal Chickadee (within 5' of me while I hung up new suet!), a Gray Jay, the usual woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches, and a large flock of White-winged Crossbills landed directly above me providing excellent looks for several minutes. Since I was already out, I decided to check a few other bogs. I found a Three-toed Woodpecker on Old Hwy 6. While I was watching it, 3 Boreal Chickadees joined me! To get to this location, head north out of Deer River on Hwy 6. About .3 miles north of CR 19 where Hwy 6 starts to curve, turn onto the north-south gravel road. Head north for a half mile and you reach a point where there is a gate on the right and the plowing stops. Park here and walk north along the power line for about 500 yards and you're in a huge bog at about the point where I found the woodpecker and chickadees. This old road is public and you can walk through up to 8.5 miles of conifer bog, if you're nuts. Then, I found ANOTHER Three-toed Woodpecker in a tamarack bog on the west side of Baumgarden Road, 1.1 miles north of CR 19. Baumgarden Road is 1 mile east of Hwy 6. Also, there was a Northern Shrike along CR 19, .1 mile east of Hwy 6. Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins, and Pine Grosbeaks were all out in decent numbers. Shawn Conrad http://users.2z.net/itasca_chippewa_birding/ _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live™ Hotmail®:…more than just e-mail. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_explore_022009 ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
