Our Christmas tradition is that I leave in the first light of morning and drive away from Floodwood in northern Minnesota and head out to bird in a nearby bog. My wife enjoys the late sleep and her family does not miss me in the kitchen. For the seventeenth year I hit the cold road to see what birds I could find. Most years I head out through Meadowlands into Sax/Zim Bog, but in some of the rare years when a lack of snow allows it, I will head to the Hedboom Trail, which runs through the gorgous bog south west of Floodwood into Aitkin County. While there is little traffic in Sax/Zim on Christmas morning, there is usually no traffic on the Hedboom. This year not a car passed me. The weather was down right balmy, encouraging me to wander out from the road. But, the day was also not very birdy. Early in the trip, my most common bird was White-winged Crossbills. I ended with only ten species including three corvids, but no Gray Jays. I found Chickadees, a flock of eight Red-breasted Nuthatches, Redpolls (several small flocks), one Downy Woodpecker, a Bald Eagle, and one perched Rough-legged Hawk. I found no owls, but still it was a most enjoyable morning. And, the dinner was awesome and the company fine.
-- Steve Weston [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
