As of today there has been 65 reported Northern Hawk Owls in northern Minnesota. The numbers maybe closer to 70 as I did not add some reports with no mileage or detail information as to where the observer actually saw the owl. Dave Alexander is right on when he stated a week or so ago that these Hawk Owls are moving around quite a bit especially in the Sax-Zim Bog area and also to some degree in Lake County along CR 2 and the Stoney River Logging Rd. ( map = http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/ )
Since the last snow fall of about 9-10 inches along the northshore and also about 8-9 inches north of Duluth last week Great Gray Owls were spotted more frequently by birders in the last week. The Great Gray Owl on the Stone Lake Rd ( CR 319 ) and has been seen off and on in the last week. Some birders are seeing the owl during the dusk hours and others are seeing the owl in the am hours. The Great Gray Owls along McDavitt have not been seen by anyone in the last month. The most reliable Great Gray Owl is on the Stoney River Logging Rd 7.6 - 9.0 miles north of the Whyte Rd. in Lake County. The Great Gray Owl in Aitkin County along CR 18 was seen by Al Schirmacher yesterday and that sighting was the first sighting of this owl in the last 3 weeks. The Snowy Owl in Duluth has not been reported by any birders in the last month! It probably is still around in the area but with the high concentration of ice anglers on the bay + cars driving on the ice its very tough to locate this owl. After the last snow fall we received in Duluth and the plummeting temperatures the gull numbers in the Canal Park area along the lake has dropped considerable. I notice that the once 300-500 gulls that frequented the Western Lakes Sanitary Distrist aka recycle plant is no longer feeding on the food scraps behind the building. I feel there is some link with the food scraps that are part of the dirt piles behind the plant and the gulls. So my best guess is that the Duluth gulls moved over to the WI landfill. I did see one adult Thayer's Gull among 30 Herring Gulls today. Sax-Zim Bog Updates: The feeders in the bog are doing quite well. The Admiral Rd feeder has Gray Jays, 3 Boreal Chickadees and good flock of Pine Siskins. The Arkola Rd feeder has good numbers of Pine Grosbeaks and Gray Jays. The feeders in the Meadowlands area are doing well too.. The Abramson feeder on the Little White Face River Rd, just east of town has Purple Finches, Redpolls and occasional Evening Grosbeaks and that is true with the Blue Spruce Rd feeder as well ( Morse feeder ). Dave is also correct that the White-winged Crossbills numbers are shrinking and many have moved on in the Sax-Zim Bog area. There is though a good number of Common Redpolls hanging around in the last month along Kolu Rd near the intersection of Cranberry Ln and Admiral Rd. or just west of the RR tracks on the Kolu Rd. Good Birding Mike Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota Website: http://webpages.charter.net/mmhendrickson/ Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
