The Second Annual Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival

What a terrific weekend! Deb and I both took Friday off so I stopped by her house in the early afternoon. I got to have a tour of her new house and let me tell you, it's simply amazing. You can see that lots of thought went into every aspect of the design and lay-out. Ruthie and I stopped to see Deb last year after the festival when the house was still empty but now with their wonderful antique pieces and the wood stove in the center, it looks like a family home. I even got to meet Deb's husband the Hermit. Their yellow lab Sally is just a doll. I could have rubbed her ears forever but it was time to hit the road again. We made it to Meadowlands and got our registration packets. Once again, Mike Hendrickson the man behind the festival was there to greet us. I need to congratulate Mike on another hugely successful festival. In total there were 155 birders from 22 states and one man who came all the way from Australia to experience the Sax-Zim Bog. We had mostly sunny skies and high temps in the low twenties, great trip leaders, wonderful dinners and outstanding evening presentations. Friday night brought Larry Weber, a retired high school science teacher who talked about life outdoors during Minnesota's winters. He had a beautiful slide presentation ( 35 mm slides- not a power point!!) illustrating the diversity of tracks and other evidence of the presence of life. Larry's enthusiasm was contagious. He sat with Deb and I for dinner and I especially enjoyed our conversation about Bernd Heinrich- one of my favorite nature writers.

Deb and I boarded our bus Saturday morning at 630AM for our day-long trip through the Bog. I had a personal bird wish list of three: Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay and Sharp-tailed Grouse. I also wanted to get a better look at Hoary Redpolls. I saw a few in the Bog last year but I wasn't comfortable that I'd be able to pick one out of a flock of Commons. We did see a few throughout the day but I got my best look at the Admiral road feeding station. There was a Redpoll feeding frenzy going on but one of our guides pointed out this Hoary Redpoll perched a little away from the crowd.

An overall frosty appearance.

Beautiful.

I was able to follow it to the ground and watched as it fed with the rest. These are very cautious and jumpy little birds. The Hoary is in the top right of this picture.

Here, on the left you can see how little streaking there is and also how much finer it is. The rump is white on the Hoary, streaked on the Common. TINY, stubbier bill on the Hoary.

White under tail coverts, while the Common has streaked.

It was overcast when I took these pictures so the lighting isn't perfect, but my memory of this Hoary Redpoll is clear. You can bet that the next time I get up to Hasty I'll be watching the Redpoll flock with a keener eye, looking for the "frosty" one in the crowd.