[mou] Sax Zim Bog Festival Wrap Up

Sun Feb 17 19:48:23 CST 2008

What a weekend!!   The first annual Sax Zim Bog Winter Bird Festival was a huge success.  We recieved 160 registrations from 20 states.  We recieved 10 cancellations due to family & personal reasons so the final attendance was 150 birders from 19 states. 

Our field trips leaders: Kim Eckert, Ben Weiland, Jim Lind, Frank Nicoletti, Ryan Brady, Warren Nelson, Steve Weston, Laura Erickson, Dave Benson, Lars Benson, Shawn Conrad, Al Shirmacher, Larry Weber and Sparky Stensaas did a outstanding job! The people they led during the two days came up to many many times on how wonderful they were. 

* Another huge thanks goes to Peder Svingen who birded the WI landfill from 11am - 3pm and waited till both buses arrived where he then help spot gulls for the festival folks.

Bird Highlights:

-Sharp-tailed Grouse along Co. Rd 7 (2/17) Dave Benson's group found the birds today.
-Ruff Grouse
-Hawk Owl: ( same spot on Co. Rd 7)  The owl was putting on a show for the birders by flying around and diving on meadow voles in front of them! The owl was seen again today at the usual spot.
-Glaucous Gulls: Wisconsin Landfill 2/16
-Thayer's Gull: Wisconsin Landfill 2/16
-Black-backed Woodpeckers: several were reported on 2/16 & 2/17 with sightings from Blue Spruce Rd, McDavitt Rrd, Admiral Rd and Hedbom Logging Rd.
-Am. Three-toed Woodpecker: Not as many sighted compared to Black-backeds.  During most of the winter many more Am. Three-toed Woodpeckers were reported vs. Black-backeds. This past weekend it was the total opposite where Black-backed Woodpeckers were more numerous.  Locations:  Blue Spruce Rd, McDavitt Rd, Admiral Rd and Hedbom Logging Rd.
-Red Bellied Woodpecker: This woodpecker was spotted by Frank Nicoletti, Ryan Brady and Shawn Conrad group on 2/16 on the Nichols Lake Rd. This is quite a unusual record for the bog area. It was coming to a feeder.
-Northern Shrikes
-Gray Jays
-Boreal Chickadees:  They were reported on the Admiral Rd but most birders saw the individual at the Blue Spruce Rd feeders. Most people were able to view the bird from 6 feet away as it fed on a suet feeder!
-Bohemian Waxwings: A group of 20 birds were seen by one group on 2/17 in the town of Meadowlands. A few birders went out to relocate the flock but they left the area.
-Snow Buntings along Co. Rd 7.
-Hoary Redpoll: male and female were reported at the Blue Spruce feeders.
-Common Redpoll: Blue Spruce Rd feeders and other locations in the bog.
-Pine Grosbeaks
-Evening Grosbeaks: Blue Spruce Rd feeders.

* No Great Gray Owls were found in many areas through out the bog and also at the Hedbom Logging Rd.  There has not been a Great Gray Owl reported since Jan. 14th anywhere in Minnesota.
* Every birder that came to the festival left with a lifer!  One person recieved her 605th lifer and another woman got her 690th lifer at the festival.

Dave Benson and Laura Erickson did a GREAT job as our speakers and sold/autographed many of thier books.  Kim Eckert recieved a lot of thanks for donating his book (Birder's Guide to Minnesota) to every participant to the festival!! We also got a donation from a source that gave us calendars with bird paintings done by watercolor artist Chee (The Old Turtle illustrator).  Also the MOU donated 200 Minnesota bird checklists to the festival as a sponsor to the event. Also many thanks to Kelly Larson that donated birding T shirts to the festival. These T shirts had boreal birds imprinted on them and were very popular.

All the vendors did very well and sold a lot of thier items at the festival!  

Several newspaper journalists followed the trips on Saturday and Sunday.  These journalist came from Hibbing, Ely and Floodwod to write stories about the festival.  KXFE in Grand Rapids though the workings of Sandy Roggencamp gave the festival free advertising on the radio! Thank you Sandy!  

News:

- Duluth Audubon through a grant is going to build a pretty decent size kiosk for the Sax Zim Bog.  This kiosk will be placed in the parking lot at the Country Market.  The kiosk will have maps and other information about the bog!  I talked to DAS president, Jane Cleave about the project and I put her in touch with Daryll Ulfshafer (owner of the market) and he was delighted in having this kiosk placed on his property.

-I had a good conversation with Derek Morse, the owner of the Blue Spruce Rd feeders and he is so overwelmed by all  the attention his feeders are getting and grateful to all the donations he has recieved through the winter. Like Kim Eckert mention to me on Saturday " the place is really fantastic, in one sitting you can see Hoary Redpolls, Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay and Evening Grosbeaks coming to the feeders " In fact Derek is so happy about the results, that he and his father Clyde Morse, are going to create another large feeding station on another piece of his property for us birders to come and enjoy next winter season!  

-A lot of local residents were also at the festival and they were so happy with all the birders in Meadowlands this past weekend! I think its pretty safe to say that we birders and the Sax Zim bog residents have a wonderful relationship that will grow each year. The residents learned so much about the birds that they take for granted and also saw how birders can really boost the economy of thier small community. They are thrilled to have us!!

-I met the owner of the Meadowlands School and he wants the festival to be at the school in 2009 since we already out grew the Meadowlands Community Center in our first year.  Many many festival birders inform many of us organizers that they are planning on coming back next year and they are going to spread the word to thier bird clubs to make travel plans to come up next year.

- Ann Taray the Mayor of Meadowlands recently purchased brand new street banners for Meadowlands.  What is really neat about these banners is that each banner has a colorful print of a bird that you can find in the bog including the Great Gray Owl. So again Meadowlands that was once known for a dairy farming community is going through a new change and is now embracing the birds that attract birders from all over to their community.

All in all the festival did not recieve one single complaint from anyone. All I heard from everyone was how fun it was, how well organized it was and how they want to come back next year.  The most important thing about having this festival is that we brought birders and the residents from all the surroundng communities near Meadowlands to celebrate the birds of Sax Zim Bog for two days!

I promise that next year we will be bigger. We will have several workshops, specialized field trips, more exanded field trips to new locations, exciting speakers, more vendors and sponsors.  We gotten the attention of some big names sponsors and 2009 festival is going to be unreal!  Stay tune.

Thank you all so much

Mike

Mike Hendrickson
Duluth, Minnesota
Website: http://webpages.charter.net/mmhendrickson/
Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/

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