60 Hour Drill - Duluth, MN

1/23/2025 - 1/26/2025

It was Tuesday afternoon when I got the call from my brother. He was caving into temptation and leaving Wednesday midday to head to Duluth. The draw? Boreal Owl. The last time we made this run for Boreal Owl was in February of 2013. That year, there were around a dozen of the birds that could be found with some easy driving. Snow was thick and temperatures had plummeted to -26 F. It was cold, and this meant that the owls were active and hunting during the day. With so many, it was easy to spot one or two at a time. Fast forward twelve years, and it was an entirely different experience.

Even getting there was a bit of a challenge. Not having planned on going to Minnesota, I had not budgeted vacation time. I needed to get hours in. This also meant I could not ride there with my brother. The best plan I could come up with was a late flight out of Indy on Thursday night to meet up with him in Duluth and then to ride back with him on Sunday. I crammed 20 hours of work into two days and then worked until it was time to go to the airport on Thursday; just making hours for the week. I got to Minneapolis on time, and then things fell apart. My next flight was delayed until the following morning. Luckily, I was able to get my bag recalled. I was looking at car rentals for the 2.5 hour drive to Duluth when my brother convinced me to let him come pick me up. To put this in perspective: he drove 10.5 hours to Duluth on Wednesday for a short night of sleep before heading out to bird then next morning, birded the bog from sun-up to sun-down (that's 7:30 am to 5:30 pm this time of year), then drove 5 hours round-trip to pick me up in Duluth for another short night before heading out to bird again. He is pretty much a machine.

Things are a bit different in Sax-Zim Bog this year. It seems like plenty of birds just did not show - or at least had not shown up in numbers yet. Evening and Pine Grosbeak were pretty nonexistent. Only one Boreal Chickadee was being reported. There were no Northern Hawk-Owl being reported in the bog. Sharp-tailed Grouse exited the bog a number of years ago. Canada Jay were being reported in small numbers. Same with Northern Shrike. Great Gray Owl were limited to one or two reports and were generally scarce. No American Three-toed Woodpecker, and a couple of Black-backed Woodpecker. My brother, Jeff, had a single Boreal Owl on Thursday. For the scarcity of everything else, there are a large number of Redpoll and Purple Finch, this year. There are also decent numbers of White-winged and Red Crossbill, but they do not come down to the feeders. They typically stay perched in the tops of the spruce.

With Jeff's Boreal sighting on Wednesday, we decided to start Thursday morning in the bog. We (along with a large number of other vehicles) heavily patrolled the area where the owl had been seen. No joy. We made circuits and checked the Admiral Rd. feeders and the Visitors' Center feeders. The VC feeders were practically abandoned. Redpolls and Purple Finch. Admiral Rd. had a bit more activity and a Pine Marten that visits sporadically. It was closing in on 10 am with not much to report. We stopped in at the VC again. While there, a kind stranger asked if we had seen the Boreal Owl this morning. When we said we had not, she took us to her guide and had him tell us where the bird was seen. You should seen the look on his face. He was not happy, but he told us anyway. Then he took one look at our cameras and lectured us on ethics. The bird was at the end of the boardwalk at Warren-Nelson Bog, and we jetted over to see it. I was surprised it was still there. It was just a couple feet over head height and about five foot off the edge of the boardwalk. A tour bus had just arrived and was cramming the small platform. The bird was too close to even shoot. I hopped off the back of the platform and snapped some shots, but they were ugly. The bird had a stick in front of its face. It was wide awake and unhappy with all the attention. I got Jeff's attention, and we left. This was not what we were wanting. We stayed in the bog for a little while longer; visiting a few different feeders. After pulling into Mary Lou's and seeing nothing but large flock of Wild Turkey feeding there, we knew we needed a different plan.

We drove out to lakefront. We have always had more luck with owls in the Two Harbors area. We drove and finally came across a single car that had spotted a Great Gray Owl sitting in a large spruce along the road. We got out and shot in the fading light. The bird eventually flew, and we started the trek back to Duluth, some warmth, and our first real meal of the day - pizza, of course.

The next morning was our final full day, and we decided to start out in the Two Harbors area. We knew it was our best bet for finding some photographable owls. We started in Two Harbors at sunrise and started driving. And driving. And driving. We saw three GGOW along the highway on the way up. It was too dark to shoot; so, we did not stop. Now, we had nothing. We ran circuits of the roads in the area and just were not finding anything. Our only photos of the morning was of a Bald Eagle that had been feeding at a deer carcass along the road. Not far from there, we finally found an owl, but it was 100 yards away. We drove on.

This next bit is going to sound a bit like sour grapes, and I am sure there is a decent amount of that. Communication in the area has been pretty much shut down; probably for a number of reasons. Talking to other birders was not yielding much info, either. None, really. So, when we finally stumbled upon a Boreal Owl, we felt pretty lucky. The bird was sitting in a crabapple tree near the road and hunting. Two other cars were there. Within minutes, there were about 20 cars there. There is communication, if you know the right people. As outsiders, we were not in the loop. Jeff asked a birder how he knew the bird was here. Did someone let him know or did he happen to drive by? The guy looked him in the eye, smiled real big, and said, "yeah... I was just driving by." I would like to play poker with this guy. He is a terrible liar.

Regardless, we had a Boreal sighting. At one point, the bird launched out of the tree and flew right over my head. The bird landed at eye-height on a small stub of a pine limb. Winds were high. It was snowing heavily. The bird was actively hunting. This was not a calm, perched bird. This bird was head-down and searching. There was never a chance for a full-on frontal shot with the bird looking at us. The weather was rough, and the bird was looking for food to stay warm. Everyone was staying a very respectable distance back from the bird. Five minutes later, it flew and moved deep into some private property. We waited to see if it would move again but ended up bailing after a few minutes.

Excited, we headed toward lakeshore to look for more. A couple miles inland, the winds are gusting over 30 mph, and it is snowy and cloudy. Closer to lakeshore, the skies were clear and sunny. That was not a good thing. It was midday by now, and the light was ugly. As we pulled onto 61, we spotted a Great Gray perched on the ground. The bad light and setting did not stop us from shooting. I just threw all the pictures away. It was nice to see one close, though. We found another owl in more harsh light down near Duluth. We shot some pictures, and I scrapped them. Squinty owls really are not much to look at.

Late afternoon approached, and we had a bit of luck. We drove back by the spot where we had the Boreal earlier. We already knew the bird was there before we got to the spot. You could see the line of cars along the road. The bird was perched behind a house, and everyone was waiting for it to move. Fifteen minutes or so later, the bird moved. It moved close. Over the next half hour, it stayed close and flew to a number of perches. You just had to keep ahead of it a bit and carve out a spot between cars and other photographers. It was chaos. Again, everyone did a good job of staying distant. That much was nice to see. The bird eventually flew across the road and into some trees. We waited to see if it would move again, but we were losing light. I convinced Jeff to move on, and we got back in the car. We were going to go check a couple of spots where we had Great Gray earlier in the day.

The owl that was perched on the ground was still around and perched in a tree. That was nice, but at the location near Duluth we had two owls feeding in the same spot. This actually lead to what is probably a once in a lifetime event. We had spent a few minutes shooting one owl when it flew up the road a little. One of the photographers there mentioned that there was another owl just on the other side of a stand of nearby trees. They were just blocking our view. Walking back a few steps, we found the owl sitting in a spruce. We were shooting it when a car slowly drove by and then backed up. I was instantly looking for trouble; expecting to get harassed. The guy asked if we had been there long and then asked if we had got some shots. I was just getting ready to ask the guy what he was wanting when he mentioned that he was a bander and wanted to band the owl we were shooting. We told him to go for it. Now, I will not go into detail on how this was done. It was remarkably easy. It took the guy longer to get setup than it did to capture the owl. Turns out, the guy gets a lot of harassment from birders and photographers, and he was a bit nervous about approaching us. Which is a little ironic. It is also the reason I am not posting any shots of the guy or the process. We talked for bit while he quickly banded the owl, aged it, and took some measurements. The bird was a second-year bird. Every owl he and other bander have banded this year (26 in total) have been at least second year birds. There are no juvenile birds coming down. That is really not a good sign. He got some pictures and then a sample of feathers for DNA and isotope analysis. The amazing thing was that he offered to let us release the owl. While I would have loved to do it, I let my brother have the shot. I took some video, instead. All in all, a really amazing experience.

After this, it was really too dark to shoot. We drove to check a couple of areas and then headed back to Duluth and a second night of pizza, of course.

Sunday. Our final morning, and we were hoping to make it count. Unfortunately, reality fell a bit short of our hopes. We figured we had until noon, at the very latest, to start heading home. A very cooperative American Three-toed Woodpecker had been reported up in Superior National Forest with some Black-backed Woodpeckers. This would be a nice capstone bird for the trip. The plan was to be there at sunrise to look for the bird. We would then head back town to Duluth and check the locations we had owls the previous day; ending up close to Duluth and ready to head home. We found the woodpecker location with little problem. The exposed red underbark of the trees stood out. With the recent snows, it was easy to see that the trees had not been visited for a few days. There were not bark flakes on top of the snow or even near the top. The trees were spent, and the woodpeckers had moved on. We bailed quickly and headed south to check for owls. We only had one.

By this point, it was 10 am, and we decided it was time to head home. It was a warm, sunny day. Nothing would be active until the evening. It was best if we headed home and got in at a decent hour. All in all, we had one great afternoon that really saved the trip. The whole trip was a bit of a whirlwind. I did not even have quite 60 hours in Duluth. I wish we had more time, but I am thankful for what we did see. Maybe if the Boreal erupt in another twelve years, Jeff and I will "plan" another trip.

Thanks for reading,

Mike