I been guiding the last few days with a few groups of birders. Hi: I been guiding the last few days with a few groups of birders. My best day was spending the day with a mother and her two young daughters (5th and 7th graders) who wanted to see a variety of birds. We spent the day in Sax-Zim Bog on March 22nd where we visited all the feeders and they even helped me fill the feeders on the Admiral Rd and lather peanut butter on the branches for chickadees. We checked out my owl platform and its still filled with snow and no owls using it yet. We ended the day watching a Northern Hawk Owl which the group was very excited to see.
Today I was out with a couple from St. Paul who are new to birding as well and they wanted to see a Great Gray Owl and any other owl species we could find. I took them to County Road 16 in St. Louis County. We met at Fitgers at 6am and drove up Highway 4 (Rice Lake Rd) and spotted our first Great Gray Owl 1/4 mile south of Comstock Lake Rd or near mile post 35. We spotted our second Great Gray Owl on County Rd 16 east of Highway 4 at the residence of 5036. This owl has been at this location for a few days now. We also observed a Northern Hawk Owl 1/4 mile east of CR 99 on CR 16. This is a new Hawk Owl that has not been reported this year. We then headed over to Sax-Zim Bog and spotted some Black-billed Magpies, Rough-legged Hawk and two Boreal Chickadees still visiting the feeders on the Admiral Rd. We did not see any Common Redpolls at the Admiral Rd Feeders or the Owl Avenue Feeders (Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Org) but did see the Brown Creeper. The Blue Spruce Feeders no longer are attracting Pine Grosbeaks or Evening Grosbeaks because the last several visits we did not see any grosbeaks but last Friday there was a small flock of redpolls and we found one male Hoary Redpoll at the feeders but not today. There are a lot of Northern Shrikes along CR 7 and Stone Lake Rd. Overall the birding is still fun but the winter finch numbers are dropping fast at the feeders. Birds reported to me the last two days: Jason Mandich called me today about a Boreal Owl that was seen on Saturday, March 23 just north of Sax-Zim Bog on Highway 25 north of CR 27 (Zim Rd ) but no miles were given. The owl was seen on private property. Read and saw photos on a Facebook page that a Boreal Owl was found in Lester Park in Duluth on Saturday March 23 in the northern section of the park by a birder who was hiking on the frozen river. Jeff Newman who lives in lakeside neighborhood in Duluth called me to report a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings flying over Regent Street near 43rd Ave E heading northwest. Mike Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota MikeHendricksonGuiding.com Sax-ZimBog.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
