Today we ventured into a bit more of Minneapolis then made our way to Duluth, with a quick stop at a small airport in Wisconsin to see TWO SNOWY OWLS!!!

Okokok, so I know I wasn’t getting my hopes up to see a SNOWY OWL. I really thought it’d be slim to none that I’d get to see one. I pretty much figured I’d NEVER see one. Too far north. Too hard to find. Too cold. And on and on.

But our day ended with TWO of them!!

But first things first. We started out at the Minneapolis airport again. With no luck again.

Made one brief stop at Silverwood Park to see about a Great Horned Owl reportedly nesting in a squirrel nest. But the two staff we encountered wouldn’t tell us where to find it. We were carrying binocs. Not cameras with large zoom lenses. One of them said, “I HAVE to protect them!”

Weird. The other employee said that too many people with cameras bothered it, so it moved to another nest.

WEIRD. Apparently, GHOs are not uncommon in the area. But maybe they’re more shy than in other places? Hard to believe, but yeah. I’ve NEVER met a Great Horned Owl that gave a damn about people near it. Of course you should keep some respectful distance from it. ESPECIALLY if owlets are about.

But we were birders. Out in the COLD to see it. Our guide was also dumbfounded. Ah, well. So we left.

Last stop in Minneapolis proper was at Springbrook Nature Center, where they had bird feeders. Where our guide thought we had a good chance at seeing an American Tree Sparrow. And he was right! Though, we waited a bit for them to come out. And enjoyed the many birds that very much appreciated the feeders in the meantime, like Dark-eyed Juncos, White-breasted Nuthatches, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, and even a couple Northern Cardinals (which was particularly lovely to see). Those shocking red flashes of color are so thrilling!

And one super spastic American Red Squirrel that seemed to be dozing with its head leaning on the branch below it. In the super cutest pose ever.

On our drive north, we stopped to catch sight of two Rough-legged Hawks. Life Bird! Didn’t get very close. The first one we stopped for was pretty shy and moved to a tree further away. Then one appeared across the highway from us that I was able to get an ok look at. My photos are crap. Too far away. But it’s neat to even see a bit of what they look like in my very outofocus shots. Still wanna keep them. A fun memory of birding along a highway!

Then we stopped at the WLSSD (Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (aka the local garbage dump), where many a Gull was, as well as the largest assembly (er, convocation) of Bald Eagles I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve seen any, really. Maybe around twelve?

We were there to check out some Gulls that don’t come through California, like the American Herring Gull, Iceland Gull, and Glaucous Gull. And super lucky for us, all three were posing near each other so we could compare and contrast quite easily. Life Gulls! Not that I’m that big into Gulls, but these are now on my Life Bird List.

Onto an intersection in a rural spot where we saw many Bohemian Waxwings. Life Bird! We weren’t able to see them too closely. And while they were quite stunning in our guide’s Swarovski scope, they looked A LOT like Cedar Waxwings to me.

Next was a visit to Canal Park, where we saw TONS (and that’s a literal count) of Common Goldeneye ducks. Now, I’ve seen the female a couple times. And the male just twice, but I was never close enough to get really great looks. THESE were dang close! The male is handsome as ever. OOF! The deepest emerald green head that pops in the right light.

A female Harlequin Duck was mixed in with them. I had forgotten I’d seen one (according to my Life Bird List) at the Farallones. Didn’t get a photo. Always tough for me to remember a bird I’ve seen the once, when I don’t have a photo for it. Fairly certain it was also a female I must’ve seen before. I think I’d remember a male one of those! So. Still want to see one…

And also mixed in was a Barrow’s Goldeneye, which took forever for us Californians to pick out from the rest. No photo. Too far away and too hard to distinguish from a far away photo. Would be nice to see it again someday. And from much closer.

Our final stop was another attempt at the Snowy Owl. Our guide had heard that this airport in Wisconsin was a great spot to see them. And not just one of them.

And they were RIGHT. We were actually driving on a main drag, about to turn into the small airport’s road, when our guide shouted, “SNOWY!” and pulled into the center turn lane of the busy street. Right across from a Menards (akin to our Home Depot) on a FLIPPIN’ STREET LIGHT POLE, out in the flippin’ open, was a large and mostly white OWL.

MAJOR LIFE OWL!!!

I took the furthest back seat in the huge black suburban behemoth we have for the week (since I’m the youngest of the tour group), so I had the worst opportunity to get good looks at it while in the car. It was unfortunate, and my photos from the backseat row didn’t have a one that came out in focus.

But we immediately parked in the Menards parking lot and got to see it from that side of the busy street. Wish my camera could do justice to how hauntingly beautiful this Owl is. But at least they’ll do well to remind me what I saw. Just gorgeous. AND, we even got to see it fly off to a street light pole a couple poles away. Dang special treat, that!

Then our guide shouted, “There’s another one!” And indeed, ANOTHER ONE was perched on a light post at the airport proper. We drove over and got to see it. Hunched down a bit, compared to the first one. And the light was starting to fade. But, WOW. And I so wished we could’ve stayed to watch them fly away to end their day. Alas.

Snowy Owls at sunset. Yeah. I’ve got one more Owl on my Hope List for the week. But this trip has already proven to be worth it. AMAZEBALLS!!!