2 March 2025

My goal for last week’s birding trip to Minnesota was to see a Life Bird great gray owl (Strix nebulosa), and there he is at Sax-Zim Bog! He was our First Bird of the day on Wednesday 26 February.

In the photo below our guide Frank Nicoletti is telling me about the features of this bird. For instance, the brown primaries indicate it’s immature.

I was especially fascinated by the ridge of feathers between the owl’s eyes which directs sound to each ear independently.

On our way back to the car I noticed very large canine footprints. A gray wolf (Canis lupus) had walked the road before we got there.

At the Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center we paused for a group photo: Lisa and Chad Walker and me.

Lisa and Chad had heard barred owls (Strix varia) hooting on their property but had never seen one. We found their Life Bird roosting by the road.

And we found three snowy owls, surprisingly, at the refinery in Superior, Wisconsin. Lisa spotted the first one on the roof near the center of this photo.

Moving closer, can you see his silhouette in the center of this photo? He’s on the roof above the red life preserver.

Best seen in my digiscoped photo.

All told we saw 32 species including: common goldeneyes, a ruffed grouse in a tree, 3 snowy owls, 3 great gray owls, barred owl, northern shrike, Canada jay, black-billed magpies, evening grosbeaks, redpolls, red crossbills and pine siskins.

Since I happened to visit Minnesota during a warm spell when it was above freezing every day, we didn’t see any boreal owls. They had no reason to be out sunning in the open.

And today we’re back in the deep freeze in Pittsburgh with 17°F.