Friday, January 6, 2012

Sax-Zim Winter Birding Festival

Have you checked your February birding schedule yet? How about a visit to northern Minnesota for the Sax-Zim Winter Birding Festival! February 17-19 are the dates and they'll be ready to welcome birders again.......
Need to check a Great Gray Owl off your life list? There's a pretty good chance you'll see one -- I took this photo in The Bog last winter.

How about a Snow Bunting or two? Pretty sure they'll be there for the festival also!

Ever seen one of these? Sometimes we see them in southern Minnesota, but you're guaranteed to see several Common Redpolls at this festival -- maybe even flocks of them at a feeding station with a Hoary Redpoll or two mixed in that flock.

There's still time to register for one of the "coolest" birding festivals in the U.S. I'll be there and I hope you can make it too!

7 comments:

Gaelyn said...

I will have to enjoy the festival through your eyes and lens Ruthie.

Unknown said...

I wish. I read a lot about this one and it sounds like a ton of fun.

RuthieJ said...

I hope to take lots of pics Gaelyn!

It is fun Marianne! Lots of good birds and the food they serve us is fantastic -- good Minnesota comfort food! Just the thing after a chilly day of birding.

Taos Sunflower said...

Awesome photos. What kind of camera and lens are you using, if you don't mind my asking?

RuthieJ said...

Thanks Martie. The 1st & 3rd pictures were taken a couple years ago with my old Canon, a PowerShot S1 IS with 10X zoom. The 2nd & 4th shots (owl and redpoll) were taken with last year's Christmas present from Mr. Johnson: the Canon EOS Rebel XS with a 300 mm telephoto lens.

troutbirder said...

Nice to hear from your Ruthie and thanks for the kind words about Barbs surgery. She is recovering quickly and meeting with the oncologists at Mayo today went very well. Estrogen therapy yes. Chemo therapy... not needed. Things are looking up. Your post today inspired to me think about a location for a brief getaway, perhaps next week. Now is you could pinpoint the tree the owl sits on it would all be perfect. :)

RuthieJ said...

Hi Ray,
Good to hear all is going well for Barb.
I'm thinking about taking a drive over to Austin for a look at the Spotted Towhee (if it's still there).
It's easy to find that Great Gray Owl in a tree at Sax-Zim.....just keep driving around until you see a bunch of people parked and standing in the road. The owl will be right across from them (that's how I found this one last year). ;-)