Northeast Minnesota (the BWCA) and the Quetico have been plagued with forest fires this summer. This video shows the bone dry conditions this summer. I am hiking FR#813 in the Greenwood Creek Forest / Bog in the Nature Conservancy Sand Lake / 7 Beavers Wilderness Preserve.
Dry Bog Hike in Northern Minnesota (severe drought)
(video link for blog email subscribers)
The highway department has been busy mowing the edges of roads. This includes dirt roads in Sax-Zim Bog and Two Harbors Highlands. In fact, Stoney River Forest Road has now reopened. Given the Minnesota grouse hunting season does not open till September 19th, it is an excellent time to take a birding excursion into rural America. It is likely you will have dirt roads all to yourself for the next 30 days. The mowing means it is easier to find/spot these “grass foraging birds”.
Such was the case a bit south of Meadowlands. I spied the male Ring-Necked Pheasant well in advance, and patience was rewarded when after five minutes, his lady love came up to join him in a morning forage for breakfast. Right now it appears the wildflowers, black-eyed susans, are everywhere! Enjoy.
I managed to take a quick birding escape a few days to “perhaps” my favorite spot in Minnesota for birding … Toomey-Williams Forest Road in the Pine Island State Forest. While my results were not fantastic, I did see many Red Crossbills and Broad-Winged Hawks. I am really beginning to wonder in the crossbills are irrupting south this year … the numbers are amazing.
Red-Crossbills
Broad-Winged Hawk
