Hello: Day two guiding two birders from Texas.
Highlights: Spruce Grouse (male) Lake CR 2 about 1 mile north of the Sand River * Drove entire Stoney River Rd. Starting from the south end at FR 11 to Hwy 1. The road south of the Whyte Rd was plowed about 2 weeks ago and there is snow on the road but with a SUV 4X4 or a 4X4 truck you can drive it easily but with a front wheel drive passenger car the road is some what messy and I would vote against driving it to be on the safe side but it looks like to gets plowed once in a while. On the other hand Stoney River Rd from Hwy 1 to the Whyte Rd is plowed but at the will of the logging outfits that are using this section of the road. I did not see any logging trucks today but I can see Whyte Rd is being used a lot by logging trucks. Ely: Varied Thrush at 2100 block of Main Street. The thrush was calling a lot and easily detected by the low "chuck" calls. It spent most of its time in the cedars across from the dark blue house that has feeders on the east side of the house. I finally figured out that "Pillow Rocks" is not a street name or business name but a pile of green stone rock that is a billion years old. There is fence around it and sign. This is basically directly across from the blue house. Thanks to all who responded to me ! Bohemian Waxings flew over the house hosting the Varied Thrush but we also found a lone bird in a crab apple tree in the middle of town. Evening Grosbeaks: Thanks from a tip from Doug Keiser sent me we found a flock in Winton (3 miles east of Ely). We drove into this very small community and found a flock coming to a feeder. Also some Common Redpolls in town as well. Sax-Zim Bog Black-backed Woodpecker are being found in decent numbers in the McDavitt Rd bog. There is a main foot path on the east side of the road that heads into the bog. Walk on the foot path and walk under the large spruce tree and just beyond that you enter a clearing with some trees that were worked on recently and just keep listening for them calling and working the trees. By the way the snow in some spots is up to my waist when you walk off the packed trail. Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota Website: http://www.mikehendricksonbirding.com 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
