R: Short-eared Owl.
Today was our first of three days at Sax-Zim Bog! This location is the highlight of the field trips, as it has a pretty diverse habitat that suits a wide variety of birds everyone wants to see. And, indeed, all the serious birders I know have all been there. It’s a must.
It is here that I’m hoping to see the Great Gray Owl. And, no. We didn’t see it today. Apparently, it’s not a good year for them. So I’m not counting on it. At all. Maybe I’ll try over at Yosemite to see one…
But we saw some fun things! Mostly at feeders.
Saw my first Evening Grosbeaks, and those males are gorgeous. And in my close-ups of them, they look like they’re wearing bright yellow sunglasses. So cool. Like a hip hop band from the early ‘90s. Life Bird!
We got a quick look at a Northern Shrike from a distance, but I’m not counting it. Not a good enough look for me.
Then we headed to the Admiral Road Feeders (so many of them, that most have names!), where we got to see the Boreal Chickadee. Life Bird! Looks incredibly similar to a Black-capped Chickadee. And this is where I learned that birds love peanut butter. That’s right. PEANUT. BUTTER.
But what was really special to me was spotting two Western Meadow Voles, who were super cautiously grabbing seed bits on the ground below the feeders. Life Vole!
Over at the Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center, we were lucky to catch great looks at a male and female Pine Grosbeak at the feeders there. And we got to do so from inside, where it was warm and was by a fire and had chairs and coffee. Such luxury!
The Center is great and had tons of different taxidermy, which is really fantastic when it’s tough to see many of the residents on your own. And even when you have a guide! I do want to see more Owls, but I now ALSO want to see a Pine Marten desperately…
We next went to the Bob Russell Bogwalk, which is one of the boardwalk trails in the nature preserve. We looked for Black-backed Woodpeckers and came up empty. Our guide saw a Pileated Woodpecker, but none of us caught sight of it before it flew off. The walk was truly special as the boardwalk is narrow. So you really feel like you’re walking through the trees. Because you ARE.
Also saw A BUNCH of Nothern Red Belt shelf fungi! And I was the only one that knew the species. Fungi Expert. That’s me. Amongst certain groups!
Oh, and it of course had feeders. Where we saw Redpolls (which look a lot like House Finches) and female Pine Grosbeaks. Along with ohsomany Black-capped Chickadees. Which are just EVERYWHERE, it seems.
We were able to spot a handful of Ruffed Grouse along the roads, perched high up in the Birch trees. I felt pretty lucky to have seen TWO up close over in Cape Breton back in October!
And though we did not spot any Great Grays, we DID see something unusual in SZB. A Short-eared Owl has been in the area, and we spent some time looking for it throughout our stops. So we got to end with finally spotting it out in the open, perched on a tree trunk stump, unobstructed. A whole mess of what seemed like pretty serious wildlife photographers were already there.
Yes, my photos of it are ridiculously bad. But I got to see it through our guide’s scope. And, OHMAHGAWD. Those EYES. They are unforgettable. I was so dang lucky to have seen it in that scope, as it soon flew off to hunt.
So we ALSO got to watch it FLY. And hunt. And soar over the open fields. So many great looks at it flying. It dove down a couple times. And it ended up perching on a shorter stump pole thing as the sky started to really darken.
Got to see it again in the scope. Pure magic through that Swarovski scope. It was an unexpected Owl species for The List for our trip. So. Dang special, it was! And I’ve only seen it once before, quite briefly while flying over at Hayward Regional Shoreline. This was actually getting to stand and watch Owl Behavior. I was in heaven.
And then, it was too dark. And we had to head out.
So. We’ve seen Owls each day so far on this trip. Our guide actually doesn’t have many more species on The List that we have good chances of seeing. We may even find ourselves with time to go looking for a Pine Marten! Which would be A-OK with me!!
