[SEE DETAILS, EVENT PHOTOS & WINNING PHOTOS HERE: http://www.saxzim.org/brrrrdathon/
BRRRRdathon Frigid temperatures eluded The World's Coldest Birdathon again with highs in the 20s and NO below zero temps on either January 10th or 11th. Our composite total was only 61 species, lowest in the event's history, but amazingly, the Grousing Twitchers team managed to find 87% of these species. Avian highlights included multiple Snowy Owls, Great Gray Owls and Northern Hawk Owls, singing Saw-whet Owl, adult male Harlequin Duck (Silver Bay Marina on Lk. Superior), Spruce Grouse in Lake County, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Thayer's, Glaucous & Greater Black-backed Gull (the latter near Lakewood Pumping Station), Black-backed Woodpeckers on Admiral Rd & McDavitt Rd in Sax-Zim Bog, N. Flicker in Lakeside Duluth, Horned Lark in Aitkin County, Bohemian Waxwings (Dunn Brothers Coffee in Duluth), Red Crossbill (Gooseberry…only 1), and a Townsend's Solitaire (50th Ave E & Oakely in Duluth). On the "bummer" side, gulls were rare with all the ice on Lk. Superior (no Iceland), also missed were Sharp-tailed Grouse, N. Goshawk, White-winged Crossbill, or redpolls of any kind. TWO-DAY BRRRRdathon David Benson, Lars Benson and John Ellis—the Grousing Twitchers—regained the BRRRRdathon crown with a near-record performance in the 4th annual event. They tied their previous best of 53 species, one shy of the all-time record set last year by the Badger Irruption. 53 species—Grousing Twitchers (David Benson, Lars Benson and John Ellis) 35 species—Modest Grouse (Chris West, Alex Stark, Luke Dahlberg) 34 species—Luther Seminary (Luke & Friends) 29 species—Naturally Avian (Erik Bruhnke, Ami Sheffield) 27 species—Team Cox (Cara & Steven Cox) ONE-DAY BRRRdathon After a 3-year run, Egretsy (formerly The Egretables) were dethroned by the upstart Coldfinches (Barb Akre, Cindy Edwardson, Al & Kimberly Loken). The margin was 2 species….The Coldfinches tallying 29 species (one short of the record) and Egretsy (their new name) with 27 species. 29 species—Coldfinches (Cindy Edwardson, Barb Akre, Al & Kimberly Loken) 27 species—Egretsy (Abigail Kritzer, Anne Marie Geniusz, Stephen Bockhold) WINTERGREEN (non-motorized) Undefeated in 4 years, Tim Bates and Andrew Webster (Slush Cyclers), rolled again with 23 species found in 20 miles of bicycling and hiking in Duluth's city limits 23 species—Slush Cyclers (Tim Bates, Andrew Webster) Four Photothon photographers braved temperatures as low as FORTY BELOW ZERO air temps and Wind Chills much lower in order to compete in the 4th Annual Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Photothon Dec. 28, 2013-Jan. 8, 2014. Each photographer submitted their 10 best bird photos from the 12-day event. All bird photos had to be taken in the "playing field" of northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Topping the field for the second time was Duluth's Erik Bruhnke. Second place finisher was last year's winner Jan Killian. The top rated photo was taken by Spooner, Wisconsin's Jason Rizzo. It is a very cool photo of a deer quizzically looking at a passing line of three turkeys. Here are some of the favorites from the competition: Sparky Stensaas Executive Director Friends of Sax-Zim Bog 218.341.3350 cell spa...@saxzim.org www.SaxZim.org ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
