Sax Zim Bog

Since it was deer hunting rifle season in Wisconsin, Kim Dauer and I (Kathy J.) decided to take our first ever trip to Sax Zim Bog in Minnesota to look for birds not typically found in our local area. Our goal birds were: Great Gray Owl, Hawk Owl, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee. We basically had no idea where to go but I was able to download a small map from their website and somehow we managed to find our way around.

Our first bird sighting was what we thought was possibly a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk. It didn't seem to have much fear of us as it flew from tree to tree along the road.
(Note: click on any image to enlarge)

Several bird feeders are set up throughout the area. This was the first and only one we found on a road called "Owl Road". Black Capped Chickadees and Red Breasted Nuthatches were abundant at this feeder.


We noticed deer carcasses hanging from trees and finally figured out they were put there on purpose to provide feeding stations for birds.

Pairs of Gray Jays would fly in and pick pieces of suet off.

They allowed us some great photo opportunities.


A little farther down the road (which is now our favorite road), we noticed a small flock of Pine Grosbeaks eating seeds in the tree tops.

A thin layer of ice was on all the small ponds and around the edges of the lakes.

We saw several Trumpeter Swans on this small lake. If you enlarge the picture you can almost make them out.

We stopped at a gravel pit to take photos of the sun dog we saw.

This was possibly a Hawk Owl but all we saw was a silhouette so it is not a positive ID. If it was, it was the only owl we saw.

Sax Zim Bog includes private property, county property and state owned property. We caught a quick glimpse of a Black Billed Magpie flying by the state owned property. We were completely surprised to see one.

Beavers had been extremely busy on one road we were on. We were trying to figure out how this tree was even still standing.

Kim

We stopped to photograph a beautiful orange sunset over a lake.

Other birds we sighted but not mentioned above were: Northern Shrikes, Pine Siskins, Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jays, Bald Eagles, Rough Legged Hawks (dark morph), American Crows, Common Ravens, Ruffed Grouse and a Bohemian Waxwing. We certainly plan on returning again.

Visit their website for more information
http://moumn.org/sax-zim/index.html