What a beautiful mid May morning in the North Woods of Wisconsin! Ryan and Sparky take their FLOATING BLINDS out to a nearby marsh to see what they can find.
Ryan gets some COOL creative shots of a pair of Common Loons and Trumpeter Swans.
Sparky is one pond over in his leaky waders under the canopy of his floating blind searching for marsh birds. Instantly flooded with mucky marsh water, Sparky presses on. Surprisingly, he finds several species that are more common further south—MARSH WREN, VIRGINIA RAIL, YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, GREEN HERON.
An AMERICAN BITTERN is calling only 15 feet from Sparky…but he can’t find it…until he does find it! Always a red-letter day when one gets to see this skulky species.
Sparky also gets video and photos of Blue-winged Teal, Trumpeter Swans.
Ryan made these blinds based on the awesome design of MrJanGear floating hides. You can purchase these readymade at http://www.mrjangear.com.
You can see more of Ryan’s photos on Instagram at #ryan.marshik
A quick outing to Southworth Marsh in a shoreline estuary in Duluth, Minnesota. Sparky starts out under the netting and photographs some epic Canada goose battles at 1/4000 of a second to freeze the action. He then gets flooded out and has to move position but is too lazy to put the netting back over himself. But it doesn’t seem to matter! A pair of American Wigeon glide right past.
Other highlights include courting “Yellow-shafted” Flickers, a balancing Belted Kingfisher, and the courtship flights of Redheads and Greater Scaup.
Spring in Sax-Zim Bog filmed on April 25, 2024: Season FIVE of Virtually Live from Sax-Zim Bog begins with Sparky seeing what spring migrants have returned to northern Minnesota. Along McDavitt Road he finds TWO rarely seen behaviors…Mating Sandhill Cranes and two leaping Black Bears! We also see some crazy video clips of our 8-year old friend Blake who has an American Woodcock that has chosen him as a mate! Other avian highlights include cooperative Green-winged Teal, courtship display of the Broad-winged Hawk, and slow-motion Trumpeter Swans.
Sparky also encourages everyone to join Friends of Sax-Zim Bog’s big spring event called the Big Week. It runs from May 11-18.
During the icy grip of the February 2021 Polar Vortex cold snap, Sparky travels to the mostly frozen Mississippi River of southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin to photograph Bald Eagles fishing open spots close to shore. He also looks for Golden Eagles inland in Houston and Winona Counties in Minnesota.
Bitter windchills means frozen toes and fingers, but the Canon R5 does an amazing job of autofocus while shooting super slow motion (4K 120fps) video of the eagles.
A trip to Old Frontenac Cemetery nets Sparky’s first photos and videos of Tufted Titmouse in Minnesota.
The trip ends at Crex Meadows near Grantsburg Wisconsin where an unexpected Gray Fox and Red Fox make a dusk appearance.
Our second Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Virtually Live birding field trip. April 21, 2020. On this outing Sparky Stensaas nearly drives right by a Great Gray Owl, finds cooperative pairs of Sandhill Cranes, photographs late Snow Buntings and Northern Shrikes and more. We wind our way around the Sax-Zim Bog from 6:20 am to 11:15 am with stops at Stone Lake, Sax Road, St. Louis River, Arkola and more. Superstar bird of the day is ????
I took a quick trip out to the prairies of west central Minnesota to witness the amazing GOOSE MIGRATION of 2019. April 1-2. Numbers like this haven’t been seen in Minnesota in many years. In fact, Steve Millard, who has lived in west central Minnesota for 46 years says he’s never seen the migration this good!
Reasons for this more easterly path of migration this year may be that the snowpack and a frozen James River in South Dakota have forced the geese to migrate farther east. I was mainly in Stevens, Grant, Wilkin and Otter Tail Counties. Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese dominated, but also some Canada Geese and a few Ross’s Geese. Several thousand Tundra Swans (870 in one flooded field near Nashua, Minnesota!) and constant skeins of geese overhead. The sounds are probably my favorite part of the experience.
There was lots of snow along windrows and shelter belts. Most lakes were still frozen but meltwater pools dotted many fields.
Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
Greater White-fronted Geese near Elbow Lake, Minnesota (Grant County)
I really love Greater White-fronted Geese, and they were one reason I made this hasty trip out west. I rarely ever get to see them in big flocks, so I was thrilled to find this amazing bunch just 0.8 miles east of the city limits of Elbow Lake, Minnesota. You can see that they are all on “high alert” but they soon relaxed and continued preening, resting and sleeping.
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/800 second at f8; ISO 320; hand-held]
Greater White-fronted Geese near Elbow Lake, Minnesota (Grant County)
[Canon 7D with Canon EF70-200mm f4L USM lens; 1/500 second at f7.1; ISO 250; +0.33 ev; hand-held]
Greater White-fronted Geese near Elbow Lake, Minnesota (Grant County)
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 2x teleconverter; 1/640 second at f11; ISO 640; hand-held; braced on car]
Multiple skeins of geese overhead near North Ottawa Impoundment (Grant County, Minnesota) on April 1, 2019.
Steve Millard, who has lived in west central Minnesota for 46 years says he’s never seen a goose migration this good before!
[Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens at 55mm; 1/800 at f8; ISO 250; +0.33 ev; hand-held]
Northern Harrier at North Ottawa Impoundment (Grant County, Minnesota)
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/320 second at f5.6; ISO 320; +1.66 ev (a mistake!…leftover from previous shots); hand-held]
Tundra Swan flock just east of Nashua, Minnesota (Wilkin County)
870 Tundra Swans settled into this flooded field along with Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese. The sun only shone for about 10 minutes on the two days I was out there.
Snow Goose flock and old Windmill (Wilkin County)
I saw this old windmill about the same time I saw the flock of geese feeding in a cornfield. I knew that I wanted a shot of the flock in the air with the silhouette of the windmill, so I waited, and waited, and waited. Just as I was about to give up, something spooked the flock and they obligingly took wing. It would have been great if they’d come a bit closer, but I still like the shot.
[Canon 7D with Sigma 50-500mm lens at 113mm; 1/640 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; -0.66ev; hand-held]
Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/400 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; hand-held]
Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/400 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; hand-held]
Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
The three photos above were a single flock of Snow Geese that had rested the night in a flooded field. I got a few photos of them sitting (below) before they erupted in unison. The sound was amazing…deafening. They quickly settled back down.
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/640 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; hand-held]
Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
99.9% of the birds you see in the above photo are Snow Geese….even the ones with dark bodies. If it has a white head, it is a Snow Goose (in this photo). The white-headed, dark-bodied geese were formerly a separate species called “Blue Goose.” We now know that they are the same species as Snow Goose. The goose in the front left corner that is all dark with an orange bill, is a Greater White-fronted Goose.
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/640 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; hand-held]
Two Ross’s Geese with Snow Goose flock near Nashua, Minnesota on April 2, 2019 (Wilkin County)
Mixed in with the massive flocks of Snows were scattered Ross’s Geese. These are much smaller birds with a short stubby bill and greenish patch at base of bill. They lack the “grinning patch” of Snow Geese. Ross’s also have a snowy white head, as compared to Snow Geese whose heads are often stained a bit yellowish. You can see two Ross’s together here in the front middle of the photo (one facing left and one facing right). They are all heading to the High Arctic to breed.
[Canon 7D with Canon EF400mm f5.6L lens; 1/400 second at f5.6; ISO 1250; hand-held]
“God Light” and a pair of Trumpeter Swans (North Ottawa Impoundment, Grant County, Minnesota)
[Canon 7D with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens at 49mm; 1/1600 at f5.6; ISO 250; -0.66 ev; hand-held]
Farm fields were mostly free of snow, but anywhere there were trees you found huge drifts of snow still.
Old Bait shop in Otter Tail County, Minnesota
Abandoned Rose City General Store in Rose City, Minnesota
May 19, 2025
Sparky Stensaas
thesparkygroup@gmail.com
