When northern Minnesota is still a snowy, slushy and muddy mess, why not head to south Florida?!

The 70-mile boat trip to Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida is a MUST for birders, bird lovers, snorkelers, photographers and anybody who loves history and nature. Tickets on the Yankee Freedom cost $240 (as of 2026) and must be made months in advance. The boat trip is about 2 1/2 hours each way, which gives you 4 1/2 hours on the island.

There are big breeding colonies of birds that are not found anywhere else in the Lower 48 including Brown Noddy, Masked Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird and Sooty Tern (only a couple other nesting locations in U.S.). And the shear number of birds nesting on Bush Key is overwhelming. Up to 100,000 birds!

But Dry Tortugas Garden Key (where the boat lands) is also a resting and recovery spot for tired migrants heading north in spring. On this trip we find dozens of Palm Warblers, several Northern Parulas, Prairie Warblers, Merlin, Yellow-billed Cuckoo and more.

Sparky’s lifers were “Caribbean” Osprey (subspecies from Cuba, Bahamas), Bridled Tern (ABA lifer #679), and Uber-rare Cuban Pewee! (only a dozen North American records and Sparky ABA Lifer #680).

And since this area has amazingly clear water and healthy coral reefs, Sparky tries snorkeling. He finds colorful fish including Cocoa Damselfish, Sergeant Major, Yellow Jacks, Blue-striped & French Grunts and even swims with a Great Barracuda!

Other aquatic highlights include a Loggerhead Turtle and some type of shark.

Dry Tortugas is one of the smallest National Parks from a land surface area, but does encompass a huge area of ocean. Fort Jefferson on Garden Key is the largest brick structure in the western hemisphere. It was built for U.S. defense in the mid 1800s but is most famous for jailing Dr. Mudd, a conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and the person who set John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg.

Seven inches of “Easter snow” motivates Sparky to get out to western parts of his home county…Carlton County, Minnesota…to find out how the migrant birds are handling this cold spring day.

Loads of Rough-legged Hawks are migrating back north to nest on the Canadian tundra. They winter in open areas of northern U.S and southern Canada where snow cover allows them to see voles. Snows are usually too deep in northern Minnesota for them to spend the whole winter. Mostly males are found today.

Early migrants like American Kestrels, Hooded Mergansers, Mallards and Canada Geese are used to dealing with spring snows, but a surprise group of 3 Killdeer are less equipped to handle it. But they seem in good spirits as they forage along snow-covered roads.

Multiple Ring-necked Pheasants are a surprise at Firebird WMA. Are they being stocked? This was formerly a stronghold of Sharp-tailed Grouse.

The most fascinating find of the day was an industrious pair of Sandhill Cranes using their beaks to “shovel” snow and probe in the softer spots of ground under a grove of oaks to find acorns! Omnivorous and opportunistic, cranes aren’t too bothered by a little snow.

The two-hour excursion ends with a stop at TJ’s in Mahtowa for a bratwurst….Their brats are de “wurst”!

Sparky sleeps in a bit but spends this late March day wandering around Northeast Minnesota in search of birds, and he finds some good ones! The day starts off with a noisy mixed flock of Trumpeter Swans and Canada Geese at the open water on the St. Louis River only minutes from his home. The cacophony of sound is in itself worth the trip. It is only 13º F but the birds don’t care.

Moving north to the Superior National Forest, Sparky seeks out Spruce Grouse and Canada Lynx…but neither can be found. One of his favorite forest roads is still clogged with snow so inaccessible. But he finds a migrating meadowlark feeding along the paved road (the only snow-free spot around). After examining some still photos he believes it is a Western Meadowlark. The only other migrant (or bird of any kind) is a newly-arrived Red-tailed Hawk.

Then Sparky remembers that he has not yet gone to find the Black-backed Woodpecker “party” in the burn from the previous spring’s big Camp House forest fire near Brimson, Minnesota. Two of his birding friends tallied 49(!!) Black-backeds in the massive burn a couple months ago, then another friend found 10 only the week before.

On the third stop in burned pines, both a male and female are found. They are so busy searching out beetle grubs that they allow close approach. A few miles on near the intersection of Hyppo Creek Rd and Indian Creek Road there are FOUR more Black-backeds! Three males and one female. A below-eye-level male obligingly pulls out several huge juicy longhorned beetle grubs from the burned pines. You can see the extraction process in all its glory in 4x slow motion.

Both a Ruffed Grouse and American Woodcock are flushed from the snowy woods.

Last stop is Agate Bay in Two Harbors on Lake Superior where there has been reports of a White-winged Scoter. And after only a few minutes of scanning the female duck is found. The scoter is not a super-rarity but not a common bird either. I see one maybe every third year in northern Minnesota.

Lastly a River Otter makes a brief appearance as it swims to shore off of Lake Superior.

And, most importantly, Sparky makes it home for dinner!

In August 2025 Sparky and his friend Paul joined birding legend Paul Lehman and the Buena Vista Audubon group on a pelagic birding trip out of San Diego. It was a beautiful day out on the Pacific with many cool birds and a few sea mammals.

Sparky avoids seasickness again with the pre-trip use of Dramamine and the day-of ingestion of ginger pills and ginger ale. He also uses pressure-point wrist straps. Who really knows if any of this works since he’s never actually been seasick.

Highlights included Flesh-footed Shearwater, Townsend’s Storm-Petrel, Long-tailed Jaeger, Cocos Booby, Sabine’s Gull, Arctic Tern, Marbled Godwit, Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Black-vented Shearwater and much more.

In between birds, Sparky meets many interesting fellow birders and photographers. A great day on the high seas!

January 17, 2026

Birding Newfoundland Canada in midwinter is not a picnic. High winds, driving rain, below freezing temps and even colder windchills should be expected. But the birds are amazing! After getting EIGHT Lifers in three days, I decided to do a little more leisurely “sightseeing” by driving the 187-mile Irish Loop.

Newfoundland’s Irish Loop winds around the rugged tundra of the massive Avalon Wilderness Reserve. It starts and ends in St. John’s but in between it goes through about every coastal town. I saw far more birds than people or cars on this January day.

The scenery along the coast was spectacular with massive 15-foot waves pounding the beaches. Not great for birding, but made for a memorable experience.

Bird highlights included a very confiding Long-tailed Duck, a large flock of Redpolls (with a few “Hoarys” mixed in), a very close Black Guillemot, Great Black-backed Gulls, adult Glaucous Gull, Northern Harrier, and my first ever winter-plumaged Willow Ptarmigan(!) (which I first thought was yet another patch of lingering snow).

As far as mammals, I finally found a small band of Woodland Caribou, but they were far off on the tundra. I stumbled a quarter mile in the half frozen hummocks of moss and Caribou Lichen against a 35-45mph headwind, but my wet feet and frozen face sent me back to the shelter of the car.

All in all, a great way to end my four days of “Birding the Rock”!

***If you need a guide, or a custom birding itinerary, I highly recommend Jared Clarke of birdtherock.com

Yowza! What a difference a year makes. Last winter I did this same route and had the opposite results. In “Sucky to Super 2025” I had ZERO luck in northwest Minnesota’s Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, but amazing success in the Big Bog: Pine Marten, White-winged Crossbills, Snowshoe Hare.

But this winter it was the complete opposite. ZERO birds or critters along the Big Bog boardwalk, but Glacial Ridge and prairie/aspen parkland surroundings really came through!

FORTY-SIX Gray Partridge in seven coveys was unbelievable! And I was able to photograph one group up close by hiding behind my van.

Other highlights included multiple Rough-legged Hawks, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Greater Prairie-Chickens, American Goshawk, Great Horned Owl, and a Northern Shrike retrieving a cache of food!

February 1-2, 2026

In Part 3 of Sparky’s birding and bird photography trip to Newfoundland he and guide Jared seek out North America’s rarest raptor, the long-standing Steller’s Sea-Eagle. This raptor is native to eastern Russia, and normally winters in Japan, but this individual showed up in Alaska in 2020 and has made itself quite comfortable in Newfoundland for the last FOUR YEARS! Will Sparky and Jared find it?

While they search they unexpectedly come upon TWO very exciting mammals in Holyrood Bay: Two Humpback Whales feeding not far offshore, and a BEARDED SEAL! This not-oft-seen Arctic seal is a Lifer for Sparky, and he took enough photos and videos to prove it.

Looking for a guide in Newfoundland? Jared Clarke of birdtherock.com is EXCELLENT!

Part 1 of 3: Newfoundland in winter? Sparky are you crazy? Crazy like a fox! This easternmost land in North America is a birding Mecca in winter. Many European species can be found here, and often not just single individuals, but sometimes many.

I hire local “Super Guide” Jared Clarke of Bird the Rock (birdtherock.com) to help me out on my first two days…and we have a whale of a time (actually that story will be in Part 2). Jared helps get me on multiple ABA Lifers including Purple Sandpiper, Black Guillemot, Great Cormorant, Pink-footed Goose (at a University campus pond!), Eurasian Green-winged Teal and more.

We go to Cape Spear (first spot the sun touches each morning in North America) and find a flock of over 200(!) Purple Sandpipers, plus learn a bit about its WWII history.

An amazing coincidence occurs on Sparky’s first leg of his Newfoundland birding and bird photography trip. A flight delay and rerouting lands him in Quebec overnight. A quick Google of “Montreal Birds” reveals a very recent sighting of Canada’s first (4th(?) North American) sighting of European Robin! Sparky has never taken an Uber before, but he quickly downloads the app and calls for a ride. Will he find it?

Sparky also interviews Sabrina who shares how she discovered this bird.

Roll that beautiful owl footage! Sparky shares his favorite video clips of owls he found in early 2025. Highlights include a pirouetting Boreal, Great Gray pouncing. Between January and March 2025 an irruption of northern owls flooded into northern Minnesota; dozens of Boreal Owls, hundreds of Great Gray Owls and a couple Northern Hawk Owls were seen. The bulk of observations were from south of Duluth, Sax-Zim Bog, Two Harbors area, Lake County, Superior National Forest to Grand Marais.