I’ve been leading trips the last couple of winters to the Sax Zim Bog in northern Minnesota, and they have been some of my most successful outings, hauling in great experiences with northern owls for small groups of people. But this year, I had the chance to lead tours for the Sax Zim Birding Festival, and my gosh it was an absolute hoot! It is a great festival in a great location; any day in those frigid spruce lands is a real treat, but I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get so many people on some great northern birds!

I was pleased to have a well-rounded schedule for the weekend. Each day I got a lead a tour in a different location and first up was my morning tour in the Bog itself. It was cold start- as always the Sax Zim is some of the coldest birding I do all year. But right off the bat we nabbed a Northern Goshawk (the only one of the weekend!) and it was barely an hour later that we were enjoying amazing looks at a Great Gray Owl! This profound creature was very cooperative and we got some great pictures, but decided to move along before too long to give the owl a chance to feed before the predicted winds and snow kicked up. The rest of the afternoon, while brisk, was productive with great looks at Boreal Chickadee, Evening Grosbeak, Gray Jay and Black-billed Magpie!

The next morning was the Duluth/Superior Wisconsin tour. Perhaps the coldest morning yet, that didn’t stop us from finding several Snowy Owls within the first hour of the tour. We stumbled by not being able to locate a Gyrfalcon that had recently set up shop along the industrial shipyards of Superior, but a very rare-to-Minnesota Common Eider was attempting to overwinter in the Park Canal of Duluth. Hard to complain about the cold when having point-blank views of this robust sea duck that normally spends it’s winters in the Bering Sea! The afternoon did not produce a staked-out Harlequin Duck, but two different Northern Hawk Owls was more than enough to keep smiles on a bunch of happy birders all the way back to the banquet hall. That night Greg Miller (of the Big Year lore and fame) presented his talk, that of an ordinary birder on an extraordinary journey. Greg didn’t use slides or a powerpoint; he just told his tale and I hung on to every word. I do love a good story!

The next morning, Greg co-led the trip up to Lake County on the edge of the legendary Boundary Waters and our target was to see if we could locate an early morning Spruce Grouse gritting on the remote highways at dawn. It took a few passes, but sure enough I spotted a group of four males up ahead! Like all “Fool Hens”, they were tame and everyone got their fill of photos. Having a gang of Boreal Chickadees and Red Crossbills around just sweetened the morning that much more. We tooled around that afternoon, trying for various finches. Sadly a Hoary Redpoll could not be found, but a rare wintertime record of a Red-winged Blackbird was hunkered at a feeder in Ely and we ended our day with a huge flock of Bohemian Waxwings feasting on berries.

It was a great weekend, and somewhat of a rare treat to hang out with so many birdy folk for a few days in a row. Hopefully I will make the Sax Zim fest again next winter, it is certainly worth the effort and the cold! Oh and lucky me, as I drove home back to the UP, I made one more stab for the Gyrfalcon and all though brief, was rewarded with a look at one of the coolest avian predators there ever was!