Sax-Zim Bog 1/17--Purple Finch, Evening Grosbeak

Pre-dawn pit stop at Superamerica

We returned to the bog early Saturday morning. Still no owls to be found, despite driving up and down what were either the same roads repeatedly, or different roads that all looked the same. Looking for "target birds" is not one of my favorite ways of birding (until we find the bird). I'd rather go to a spot where the birds are and look through them, hoping for something interesting, rather than drive around looking for one bird. There is a fine line between persistence and stubborness--happily, Kim doesn't cross that line.

I'm not sure what governmental status the bog has, but there is a small population scattered throughout and some of the residents have made their yards into big feeder stations and it was one of those spots that we picked up a bird I had forgotten about but that is one of my favorites--Evening Grosbeak. I listed 10 of these big yellow birds, but there were probably more than 30 in the trees around the property. A "by the way" FOY bird was Purple Finch.

Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Common Redpoll, Visitor's Ctr

Purple Finch, Visitor's Ctr

We also stopped at the Visitor's Center where there were at least a 100 Common Redpolls. We tried to make one of them into a rarer finch but Kim kept saying no. Having a leucistic Redpoll in with the flock didn't help matters.

13 species
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Shrike  3
Blue Jay  1     Heard
American Crow  1
Common Raven  4
Black-capped Chickadee  4
Boreal Chickadee  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Purple Finch  4    
Common Redpoll  130    
Pine Siskin  25
Evening Grosbeak  10