Guide Series: Slummin’ and Chummin’ for Snowies, Gyrs, and Gulls in the Twin Ports

No birding trip to northern Minnesota in the winter is complete without spending a significant amount of time in Duluth, MN and Superior, WI.  Not only is it the most reliable place in this part of the state to find the Snowy Owls that Gordon Karre and Tommy DeBardelben craved, but it is also a place where one can rack up a sweet suite of winter Gulls and see some oddball vagrants such as the Golden-crowned Sparrow, Townsend’s Solitaire, and the impressive Gyrfalcon–or two or three this year.  In short, Tommy, Gordon, and I had a lot of work to do in this urban birding environment, and we scheduled no less than a full day from dawn to dusk on our second day of the Tour de Nord.

Our day started with a search for the most reliable Snowy Owl in Superior, Wisconsin, the one that had been hanging out around the Richard Bong Airport and nearby parking lots of Menards and Aldi.  The truth is, I wanted to secure this main target early in the day rather than waiting until the day was almost over.  Alleviating the stress early and getting home earlier for a hot shower and a hot meal sounded dreamy.  But I really wasn’t stressed about the Snowy Owl since we had success with the Great Gray the previous day and since I knew this species of Owl would be the easiest to get for Tommy and Gordon.  Anyhow, we gave up our morning Snowy search after a couple hours to pursue some other targets.  We would just have to get that SNOW in the evening.  No biggie.

The thing about finding the really good birds in Duluth/Superior is that they are in some of the most sketchy places–industrial complexes, oil refineries, rail yards, landfills, etc.  But we birders go where the birds go.  Then a funny thing happens–we grow to like those places and even dream about them. A pristine, quiet stand of Red Pine next to an untouched, snow-covered northern lake? Forget about it. Bring on the garbage trucks, train cars, and smoke stacks!

Peavey

Tommy, Gordon, and I made a stop at the Peavey grain elevators to look for its most impressive avian residents.  After a short time, we finally spied Tommy and Gordon’s lifer Gyrfalcon fly in.  Then it perched the closest to the road I’ve ever seen this bird perch.  Normally it hangs out on the huge superstructure furthest from the road, but this time it split that distance in half and even flew across the road on which we stood.

Gyrfalcon

GyrfalconAfter this, we made a stop at Canal Park in Duluth to see what was going on Gull-wise.  The guys picked up a handsome Thayer’s Gull lifer, but that was about it.  I couldn’t even muster up a Black Duck for the guys. I did, however, do my Minnesota duty and made Tommy and Gordon skip rocks in Lake Superior.

Thayer's Gull

Now, there are still blog posts to be written, but Tommy and Gordon truly hit the jackpot with all their birds on this trip.  They also hit the jackpot with the weather as it was unseasonably warm their entire trip–it was nearly 40 degrees ABOVE zero and SUNNY in Duluth this day.  I don’t know if they can fully appreciate that. This dude gets it.

Kayak Lake Superior

After Canal Park we went up the North Shore of Lake Superior 20 miles to the town of Two Harbors to look for some nomadic Bohemian Waxwings and see what was happening seaduck-wise on the lakefront.  We struck out on those Bohemians, but once we got to Agate Bay we met Jim Lind, compiler of the Duluth RBA, who had his scope zeroed in on a handsome male Long-tailed Duck.  It was way too far for photos, but the scope views were incredible. This was definitely my bird highlight of our Duluth Day.

By this time in the afternoon it was time to head back to Superior to begin our Snowy search in earnest.  We had a little time to check out Canal Park for Gulls and Black Ducks.  On the way, I got a text from Randy Frederickson that they had an Iceland Gull; Randy is a birding friend from where I live, but I had found out he was in town to study Thayer’s Gulls intently in the hopes of finally seeing one in our Kandiyohi County.  I got a second text from Randy as we literally just parked the car at Canal Park: the Great Black-backed Gull had just come in! Score!

Great Black-backed GullTommy and Gordon quickly tallied this lifer as well as the Iceland Gull lifer.  They also got to witness the spontaneous birder parties that happen at Canal Park as the who’s who of Duluth birders show up to enjoy the Gulls, look for the really wacko stuff (Ivory Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake), toss bread out to bring the Gulls closer, take orders for what Gulls everybody is still looking for, and generally be friendly tutors to those of us still illiterate in Gull identification.  Peder Svingen, Clinton Nienhaus, and John Richardson were all on hand this particular afternoon to confirm species ID and point out the cool Gulls from the Herring herd.  Even when some of us were distracted with trying to get a THGU/Lighthouse combo pic…

Thayer's Gull lighthouse

…Clinton was still keeping an eye to the horizon. All of the sudden, Clinton made a cheerful announcement to the three of us, “Gu-uys! Glaucous coming in!” It was a lifer for Gordon and gave the AZ guys the Winter Gull Grand Slam.

Glaucous Gull

Finally, though, it was time to get back to priority one for this day: Snowy Owl searching.  Peder Svingen gave me some great last-minute tips on a couple of birds in Superior.  He was spot-on.  Tommy quickly found one of those Snowies perched up giving them one of their most-wanted lifers and giving me another huge wave of relief.  While viewing it, birding guide Kim Risen stopped to talk, and he pointed us in the direction of a second bird in the area and asked what else we were still looking for.  The generosity of MN birders continues to impress me even though I’ve seen it over and over.  Here’s the bird Kim had for us.

Snowy OwlCan you spy Tommy, Gordon, and the Snowy Owl in this photo?

Snowy Owl Superior

The good thing about Snowy Owls in the Twin Ports is that they are fairly easy to come by.  The bad thing is that most all of them have been caught, tagged with a number, and marked with shoe polish on their heads by bird bander Dave Evans who has been studying them for 40 years.

IMG_7239The wing tags help Dave monitor and identify the Owls from afar without having to stress them with recapture.  Here is the first Snowy Owl we saw just before #28 above.

Snowy Owl SuperiorI wish Tommy and Gordon could have seen unmarked Snowy Owls, but a marked Snowy seen is better than an unmarked Snowy not seen!  Ironically, these were the first marked Snowy Owls I had ever seen in real life.  Tommy and Gordon did get to gain an appreciation for the types of urban habitats these birds often winter in.

Snowy Owl SuperiorIt was another rocking day of birding in the north that met or even exceeded expectations.  Notable misses included American Black Duck and Bohemian Waxwing.  On a sad, personal note, my Kittiwake lifer did not make an appearance.  Here is a run-down of the second day’s lifers:

Gyrfalcon – Tommy, Gordon

Thayer’s Gull – Tommy, Gordon

Iceland Gull – Tommy, Gordon

Great Black-backed Gull – Tommy, Gordon

Glaucous Gull – Gordon

Snowy Owl – Tommy, Gordon

Once again, a great team of Minnesota birders helped Tommy and Gordon have a memorable day.  I’d like to thank Jim Lind for pointing out the Long-tailed Duck, Peder Svingen for his Snowy Owl tips and his Gull identification tutorials, Randy Frederickson for his heads-up texts on the Iceland and Great Black-backed Gulls, Clinton Nienhaus for alerting us to the Glaucous Gull, John Richardson for being another set of eyes at Canal Park, and Kim Risen for the bonus Snowy Owl. This birding community is the best!

Coming up is a post about the day of northern birding I was looking forward to the most.  I myself was going into new birding territory as we would have to venture way up into Northwest Minnesota in our pursuit of the guys’ Northern Hawk Owl lifer.

Northern Gulls Gone Wild

I have a confession: I used to really hate Gulls.  Even in my early years of birding, I saw them as trash compactors and poop factories.  They’re everywhere, especially in nasty places like landfills, dumpsters, Wal-Mart parking lots…  To think of them as birds seemed degrading to the likes of Warblers and Owls. Then once I got to a point in birding where I was willing to accept them as birds, I was faced with the ID headaches of doppelganger species, multiple molt cycles, and hybrids, so I dealt with that like any normal person facing a difficult task–avoidance.  From reading around the bird blogosphere, I’ve come to learn that this reluctance to get into Gulling is normal.  Something happens to us all, though.  It’s inevitable.  Something finally gives.  For some, the turning point may come with seeing a really cool Gull like an adult Sabine’s.  For others, it could come when one has gained more confidence in identification.  For me, it was the fact that I had ignored a large pocket of untapped life Gulls in my own state.  It turns out that Minnesota gets a phenomenal collection of winter Gulls on Lake Superior in the Duluth area.  By putting this off for so long all the while going deeper down the rabbit-hole of birding, I had reached a point where I wasn’t reluctant any longer.  In fact, I was stoked to go after those Gulls from northern Canada. Minnesota birding phenom, John Richardson, fanned those flames by finding species after species of these rarer northern Gulls and posting jaw-dropping photos on FB.

So on our way north for Thanksgiving, the fam and I stopped by Canal Park to meet up with John and hopefully some of the cool Gulls.  I was on a bit of a bad-luck streak, though, after freshly missing the Kiskadee–so there were no Iceland, Glaucous, or Great Black-backed Gulls for me on this day.  I did finally get to see some adult Thayer’s Gulls, a bird that was previously just technically only on my life list because of a long-distance sighting of a juvenile.  This was better. Much, much better.

Thayer's Gull

There were also Herring Gulls.  There are always Herring Gulls.

Herring Gull

With the dark eye and hood, the Thayer’s really do stand out from the ubiquitous Herring and Ring-billed Gulls.

Thayer's Gull

For the non-birder and the emerging Guller, here you can see a contrast between the Thayer’s on the left and the Herring on the right.  Note the difference in size, shape, and eye color (dark iris for the THGU, yellow for the HEGU).

Thayer's Gull Herring Gull Gull identification is hard, especially if one is only looking at pictures or studying field guides.  Learning them from books is even kind of boring which I proved by falling asleep one night studying Gulls in Sibley.  To study Gulls and get to know them, one must learn Gulls through immersion–get yourself up close and in person among the Gulls and go with someone who knows more about the Gulls than you do.  Though I didn’t add any lifers on this try, my confidence and excitement for Gulling increased under the tutelage of John.

After this brief visit to Canal Park, we went further north to enjoy the holiday with family.  I desperately wanted to sneak back down to Duluth during our visit home to make another go of it.  Melissa suggested instead that we just stop there again on our way back south.  Good deal, wouldn’t you say?

In a form of birding symbolism, the sun was now shining brightly on our second try.  Little did I know just how bright things would get.  I did notice a lot more Gulls right away, though.

Canal Park

Duluth Shipping Canal

As I scanned the Gulls lining the pier on the right from the pier on the left, I immediately spotted the gorgeous adult Great Black-backed Gull John had found earlier that week!  Lifer! I could not wait to get across the lift bridge and over to the other side to check it out. Once over there, Evan and I were joined again by John Richardson and Tony Lau as well as the #1 eBirder in the state, Peder Svingen.  With about 600 Gulls to look through with some of the best in the business, this was going to be awesome.

As the four of us slowly made our way down the pier, John quickly picked out the 2nd-cycle Iceland Gull he’d found earlier! Lifer #2!

Iceland GullIceland GullThe Iceland was cool, but I was really itching to make my way to that Great Black-backed for some photos.  But, you don’t rush down the pier and get out in front of a birding Jedi like Peder Svingen. Patience, young Skywalker. Many Gulls to go through have you.

Canal ParkWhile I waited, a Thayer’s was begging to be crushed.

Thayer's Gull

Another exciting find was when John spotted a 1st-cycle Great Black-backed Gull–two Great Black-backeds!

Great Black-backed GullI love how this HEGU is checking him out.

Great Black-backed Gull

Seriously, though, look at this bruiser.

Great Black-backed GullThe Great Black-backed Gull is the largest of the Gulls; it dwarfs the Herring Gulls.

Great Black-backed Gull

As we were getting within photographing distance of the adult Great Black-backed Gull, magic happened.  The other guys spotted our third lifer of the hour, the stunning and large Glaucous Gull!

Glacous Gull

Glacous GullWith the Glacous, I now had all three hoped-for lifers and got all my northern Gulls in one tidy outing.  The only thing left to do was to photograph my favorite of the three lifers, the adult Great Black-backed Gull, a stand-out bird.

Great Black-backed Gull

Great Black-backed GullGreat Black-backed GullGreat Black-backed Gull

The icing on the cake was that all this Gullifering took place in under an hour, and Evan and I got back to the car where the girls were patiently waiting for us.  It was a dream outing.  I’m glad I’d saved these Gulls for this late in my birding.  The timing was perfect because I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and couldn’t have had it any better.  Sorting through the hoards of Gulls for the hidden treasures with some talented birders made it all the more fun.

A huge thanks goes out to John Richardson for his daily patrols of Lake Superior, his great Facebook reports, and for his help in pointing out a couple of these lifers.  Call me Gull-able, but I now think these birds are pretty cool.

Searching for Sea Ducks on the North Shore of Lake Superior

Canal ParkThere has been a gaping hole in our Minnesota bird collection.  We have traveled extensively throughout the state and have pretty much seen all the specialty birds tucked into hidden nooks and little-known crannies.  Despite that fact, we have neglected one of the state’s most important birding areas – Lake Superior.  Here the possibilities for new birds abound with many sea duck species, northern gull species, oddball loon species and even three jaeger species.  I have never known how to approach birding the big water from the vast 150 miles of shoreline between Duluth and the Canadian border.  I had long ago figured that someday I might just have to hire a guide for a day to learn how to bird this sea-environment.  A couple weeks ago, though, I saw that Clinton Nienhaus was leading a FREE field trip through the Duluth Audubon Society along the North Shore specifically to look for sea ducks.  Free is always good, unless it’s a puppy, so I went for it.  Visions of Scoters and Harlequin Ducks danced in my head while I awaited this trip.

At long last, it was time.  This past Friday I picked Evan up from school, and we drove the 3.5 hours to Duluth.  We stayed in a hotel so we could be up and ready to go in Canal Park at 7:30 that next morning.  Evan was excited about the pool; I was excited about leaving at decent hour instead of 3 AM if we had foregone the hotel.

We met up with our guide, Clinton, and the rest of the small group for an adventurous day ahead.  First up was birding the canal and canal walls that you see above.  One never knows what interesting ducks will be in the canal or what special gulls line the walls.  Alas, it was pretty ho-hum.  We tried to make a Herring Gull into a Thayer’s, but it didn’t work. So it was off to our next stop, Brighton Beach.

Brighton Beach

No ducks could be seen, just a couple of Horned Grebes. We did observe a delightful birding phenomenon as we had Common Redpolls migrating by us and through us by the hundreds.  This was a great sign because strangely there were only two reports of Redpolls in the entire state last year.  That abysmal report contrasted greatly with the numbers we had two years ago when we had about 150 in our yard alone.  Needless to say, it was good to see these old friends again.  It was also fun to witness birds migrating down the shore;  southbound birds hit the big water of Lake Superior and opt to fly southwest down the shoreline.  Many of the Redpolls were literally flying over the rocks you see above.   I have hundreds of Redpoll photos at close range in great light of the many varied forms of this bird when they hung out in our yard two years ago.  So these photos are not the best but are provided to add a little meat to the bones of this post.

Common Redpolls

Clinton, a graduate student in environmental education, taught us that the Redpolls love to eat the seeds of birch and aspen trees. The catkins (those banana-shaped things below) contain thousands of the tiny, paper-like seeds.  When the Redpolls forage on these catkins, hundreds of seeds are then dispersed.

Common Redpoll

Throughout the day we kept seeing more and more Common Redpolls.  A conservative estimate would be 1,000 birds. Clinton pointed out that their flight calls sound like little lasers shooting.  That tip really helped this birder who is challenged in the auditory department.

After Brighton Beach our convoy of cars snaked its way up the shore to Stoney Point.  All I found here were dismal memories of missing Boreal and Great Gray Owls a couple years ago.  There still were no ducks either.  It was tough to get discouraged, though, because we had a long ways to go and many more stops to make, like at Agate Bay and Burlington Bay for which the town of Two Harbors is named.

Right away at Agate Bay an interesting raptor hovering in the stiff wind caught our attention.  It was a Rough-legged Hawk which ended up being one of several for the day.  Right now they are migrating through.  I always enjoy seeing this hawk.

Rough-legged Hawk

It was amazing how it stayed in one place in the air, seemingly hovering like a helicopter.  Finally it swooped down to the grassy bank below where it caught a mouse and proceeded to eat it on a rock.  Clinton taught us that mice are their primary food of choice and that though they are the same size as a Red-tailed Hawk, their talons are half the size.

Rough-legged Hawk

This hawk continued to dazzle us as it flew low over the parking lot.

Rough-legged Hawk

Here’s my favorite view of a Rough-legged Hawk when it shows off those black, carpal patches.

Rough-legged Hawk

But as cool as the hawk was, we still had no luck finding ducks on the water.  We took in migrating Bald Eagles, though.

Bald Eagle

And even some that might just be sticking around.

Bald Eagle

We took a little walk around the Two Harbors Lighthouse hoping to relocate the Western Kingbird or Northern Saw-whet Owl that had been seen there last weekend by the Minnesota Birding Weekend group.  No luck on those.

After awhile it was time to keep heading northeast up the shore.  Stops at the Silver Bay Marina and Taconite Harbor kept up the trend of the day – no sea ducks.  It was frustrating because in the past week all three Scoter species, Long-tailed Ducks, a Harlequin Duck, and a King Eider had all been seen.  We were running out of shoreline in a hurry. However, Taconite Harbor did have one goody for us –  a flock of fly-over lifer Bohemian Waxwings!  We never could get them to stick around to get good looks, but it was fun to finally get a life bid.

The next stop finally produced what the trip was offering.  As we exited our vehicles at the Cut-Face Creek Wayside at Good Harbor Bay, we could see a few dark blobs on the water.  One of those blobs was a Red-necked Grebe, but those three were our first lifer of the day, the White-winged Scoter!  This was a hoped for bird.

White-winged ScoterI was hoping for closer looks, but distance was a factor…

IMG_1076

White-winged Scoter

White-winged Scoter

I think we all had a sense of satisfaction of finally seeing a trip target.  We got to observe the Scoters dive which they do differently that divers.  Clinton told us to pay attention to how the ducks open up their wings just before they duck under.  It was pretty cool to watch the trio do this in unison.

With spirits buoyed we made the short jaunt into Grand Marais to see what the harbor was harboring. It turns out there wasn’t much in the way of ducks, and there were zero sea ducks.  One of the highlights, though, was getting to observe two Snow Buntings at arm’s length as they foraged in the parking lot.  I have seen many, many Snow Buntings but never this close as they are a skittish bird and never with a backdrop that is anything other than white.  This was a real treat.

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

And here is perhaps the best SNBU photo I will take my whole life:

Snow Bunting

We continued to bird around Artist’s Point.  Interestingly the group found an out-of-season, out-of-range Western Meadowlark right on the Coast Guard station lawn.  Then it was off to the lighthouse to get some better looks at the gulls across the harbor channel.  The appropriately named Sawtooth Mountains are in the background.

Grand Marais

Birds or no birds, it was an epic adventure for a 7-year-old to hike out to the lighthouse.  I had brought along his deer-hunting snowsuit to keep him safe on this opening day of deer season.  Perhaps I should have also brought a life jacket and a wetsuit??

Evan

King of the world, this very cold world.

Evan

Out by the lighthouse we scanned the gulls across the way.  I really don’t know gulls, so in this department I am not the least bit embarrassed to let someone tell me what some gull is or what cycle it is.  Clinton tells us this tawny-colored bird in the center of this shot is a first-cycle Thayer’s Gull.  We tallied it for the life list and moved on.  Personally I find these lichens to be more fascinating.

Thayers Gull

From Grand Marais we had a couple stops left.  We did them out of sequence going to Hovland first, the furthest point we were going to, and Paradise Beach second on the way back to Grand Marais.

There were no ducks at Hovland.  Paradise Beach held a few more White-winged Scoters that I never saw but the group did see and one Bufflehead that we tried to turn into Harlequin Duck.  Finally darkness was upon us and the great day of North Shore birding was over. Our hopes for more sea ducks the next day would not be further up the North Shore as we had no passports with us.  Instead, our hope for the next day was still alive because Evan and I would be able to continue the duck hunt back down the shore on our way to Duluth.  And it would prove to be a very bright day.

Hovland