Let's Talk Minnesotan!!
The only thing that exceeds the cold...cold...weather of Northern Minnesota is the warmth of the people. These people are awesome. Wherever we went we were inundated with all of the local citizens special owl encounters. Everyone was eager to share with us their favorite "owl road." We even got tips from Ken Boyd at the gas station on Route 210 in McGregor and permission to go "tramp " his field in search of owls. Ray Rheinhold, owner of Town and Country Motel in McGregor not only gave us his tips, but dug up a copy of "Birding Aitkin County" by Warren Nelson (no relation...well maybe no relation...could be...hell who knows the Nelsons cover half the state). We even had a construction worker, complete with the required Carhart coveralls, pull up and idle his large diesel truck with a Bobcat skidloader in tow while we were parked along the raod scoping a good bird.
"What you folks looking at?" he asked.
Now where I come from once I tell people that we are looking at birds we usually get laughed at or cursed. When I tell this guy we are observing a Northern Shrike perched in the tree, he says "Good Bird! There are some great owl roads just go down and make a left hand turn at the cross roads then make the next right turn and look for the farm on your right. Have fun." And off he rode.
My wife and I just looked at each other. How could this be...what parallel universe did we land in, where ordinary just plain old folks (my kind of people) take their time to not only talk to birders, but to give actual fantastic birding tips.
I Love Minnesota!!!!!
Now the McGregor area is fantastic. All of the backroads have very little traffic so they are very safe for our type of birding, driving slow, sudden stops and my bad driving. All of the backroads and nooks and crannies of Aikin County are worth birding so do not be scared of the ice and snow coverage. We never got stuck once.
The area that was kind to us was Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The people working there were helpful, gracious and kind. While there we had excellent looks at Great Gray, Northern Hawk and......
Now I belong to the Yogi Berra School of Birding which goes by the mantra " I'd Rather be Lucky than Good."
We had just ticked Great Gray Owl and Northern Hawk Owl ("little round Christmas decorations with tails at the tops of trees" a rather good description supplied to us by Rich Peet a Minneapolis birder......I thinks he spends a lot of time in the bogs) and was feeling pretty full of myself. So...I decided to get a little greedy and go for Black-backed Woodpecker. We drove over the bridge on the road leading out of the Refuge and found a good spot which I though looked rather good for woodpeckers and turned off the car. Black-backed Woodpecker is a good bird for us and was one of our target birds.
I reached over to lower the window on the rental SUV and when I turned my head I was face to face.....rather face to facial disc with a rather small, but sleepy looking Boreal Owl. Just nine feet from from the car at eye level...you just can't get any luckier than that!!!
We believe that this is the first report of Boreal Owl for Rice Lake....if anyone knows any different please comment us at the end of this blog. Photos to follow.
Lets leave Rice lake and go to Sax-Zim.
Sax-Zim is more of an area than a refuge or a designated Wildlife Sanctuary. It seems to cover quite a bit of territory and it is all good birding habitat.
While there we had one of the most surreal and beautiful birding days of our lives. It snowed most of the day and a day spent birding in this fantastic winter wonderlad was made that more delicious because of the good birds and short hikes back into the frozen bog land. We were simply enchanted.
On McDavitt Road we also learned the rewards of patience. Someone (thank you...thank you...thank you) has hung a bag of suet under a tree along a foot path leading east. We parked, turned off the SUV, and while the snow fell gently around us and the silence enveloped us like a blanket we waited for the Black-backed Woodpeckers to make their grand appearance onto this Swan Lake like winter stage.
We waited and had Black-capped Chickadees, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers show up at the suet, but alas no Black-backed Woodpeckers.
And then from east to west flew a woodpecker. A rather dark looking bird in flight, but with that distictive WP flight pattern....Binos up...the bird lands on a tree rather denuded of bark and proceeds to to go to work doing that thing that woodpeckers do so well. But not hammering or pecking, but rather scraping or flaking the bark off. The Black-backed Woodpecker was soon joined by it's partner so we now had two of these wonderful new ticks to observe for the next twenty minutes.
Sax-Zim is a fantastic birding area and a return in spring is in our future.
If you find yourself in the city of Two Harbors you have to do yourself a favor and go to the Vannilla Bean Bakery & Cafe...great coffee(best of the trip) pancakes that are to die for and fresh baked bread. If you are headed to the lighthouse and harbor area you have to go past the place...stop in...great service and friendly folks. Check out the bakery I know I did.
We left Two harbors and headed up 61 to Grand Marais and the Gunflint Trail. I only have one word to say about the Gunflint Trail...SKUNKED......SKUNKED......SKUNKED. OK! That is not three words but one word repeated three times. We were so skunked that I still stink.
Now we were not literally skunked by a skunk we were skunked by the birds which is worst. We got NOTHING...zilch..zero....bumpkis.
We did not count the two ravens laughing so hard at us that they fell out of tree....besides who would have believed us.
So we left Minnesota a few ticks to the good and a little wiser about the birds of the frozen north. This trip seved it's purpose...getting us not only out of the house and getting some fantastic birds, but this trip actually served as a training trip for our upcoming May trip to the town of Kirkenes in northern Norway...the fabled land of the mid-night sun.
Would we go back to bird Minnesota in the winter...."You betcha"