Stromboli's Rolling Log: Day 55 A visit to Sax Zim Bog. (Say what?)

Yes, that is correct Sax Zim Bog it is a large area NW of Duluth,MN about 50 miles and 25 miles from where we are camped. This area includes a mixture of State, County and private land as well as the Cloquet Valley State Forest and the Whiteface River State Forest. Sax and Zim Wildlife Management Areas are found here, as well. Nichols, Murphy and Artichoke Lakes, as well as many others are located throughout the IBA. The Whiteface River bisects the IBA, and the St Louis River makes up part of the northern border of the site. It covees 147,000 acres. WOW! Actually there is a community named Sax, and two roads with those names.

I had seen on the internet before we left on the trip a very good printable map of the roads that showed where to see certain birds, and actually where people and bird feeders that could be observed to see bird species. This route took us along gravel roads, into a sewage facility, investigating swamps, forests, fields and two track forest roads. Along the way we met a young man from Brainerd, MN who was also birding that day. There was no one else as far as we could tell, doing that this day on that huge piece of property. The town of Meadowlands, although only a few hundred people , supports this great acreage and has a kiosk in the town that has information on the Bog.

In the morning the birds were very active, more so than at any time in the past week. Even though it was cool this AM (43F) and it never went above 53 F , they stayed active until afternoon, when they just seemed to 'disappear'.

We did locate and identify 33 species , but there were a few warblers, especially, that were a bit too far away or too elusive, to identify. One common activity is, when seeing a bird fly across the road in front of you, is to keep track of where it went. Too often they "disappear ' into the brush, never to be seen again. On the driver's side I have a large rear view mirror and that blocks part of their flight when they fly across. (I have often wanted to get it "reversed" or upside down, but no shop seems to know how or will try to do it.)

On one road we met a couple walking with two dogs and all of a sudden the dogs took off chasing what turned out to be a 'Partridge' and although we did not see it, the dogs did.

The last attempt to find birds was to three lakes that are all named 'Stone'. One, East Stone', one, 'West Stone' and one, 'Stone'. There have been Rails there in the past but we neither saw ,nor heard none.

So here are a few pictures of the day. Including some birds and the roads. Tomorrow we head for Michigan and a town (Germfask) near Seney NWR in the Upper Peninsula or affectionately known as the "U.P.".Seney is a favorite of ours. We plan on taking a side trip to Whitefish Point where we will see many birds in migration across Lake Superior to Canada. Pictures follow.