January 2023: Join Sparky in Grand Marais on the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog BRRRRdathon-World’s Coldest Birdathon. Long-tailed Ducks, Bohemian Waxwings.

We also answer some of your questions about Sax-Zim Bog including “Why aren’t there more owls this winter?”

Also we cross-country ski on the only ski trails in the Sax-Zim Bog.

Last August I escaped for a weekend to explore the Swamp River in a remote corner of Cook County in far northeast Minnesota. My goal was Moose and rare flora. But the highlights turned out to be a Timber Wolf pup that was playing along a dirt road near the canoe landing, and a feasting flock of Cedar Waxwings.

I took hundreds of photos and several videos (including playing otters) during those two days…some pretty good, I thought. After I got home, as usual, I downloaded them to an external hard drive. But before I could even really look at the photos, the hard drive crashed! I had duplicates of all the photos on the drive EXCEPT the most recent ones, including those from that weekend up north.

Fortunately, a computer guru was able to recover almost all of the images…Unfortunately, it cost quite a bit. But worth it! The lesson? YOU REALLY DON’T HAVE ANY PHOTOS UNTIL THEY ARE BACKED UP IN AT LEAST TWO PLACES. Ideally, every image should be backed up at home in two places, AND a full-size version should either be in the Cloud (Photoshelter, CrashPlan, BackBlaze, Carbonite, etc), or an off-site location (in case your house burns down). Do I follow this myself? I try, but I’m behind on backing up to the Cloud. I put my best stuff (as full-size jpegs) on Photoshelter at my http://www.sparkyphotos.com site.

Pups this time of year often can be seen near roads. The adults are likely nearby and may still be feeding the young. NEVER feed wolf pups! The last thing we need is a wolf getting acclimated to humans. If it ever approaches a human or dwelling in the future, it will probably be “removed.”

The following morning I canoed part of the Brule River off the Gunflint Trail…Once again, skunked on Moose. But the Mountain-ash berries (Sorbus sp.) were ripe and the Cedar Waxwing families were chowing down!

Two juvenile Cedar Waxwings feast on Mountain-ash fruit.

Did you know grasses can have beautiful flowers? This is the bloom of Wild Rice (Zizania palustris). Ducks feast on this grass during their fall migration.

Here is an interesting wildflower that grows in slow moving waters…Megalodonta beckii …Beck’s Water-Marigold

…But it is even more interesting when you lift it gently out of the swamp! The finely divided submerged leaves encircle the stem. Very neat plant.

PacMan convention

I got down very low to get this image of a White Water Lily and its reflection along the Lima Mountain Grade. I then increased the contrast in Aperture.

Gotta go now…Time to backup some photos!