Saturday was a travel day on my way to Duluth, Minnesota for a trip with Tropical Birding. I had a layover in Minneapolis that was supposed to be followed by a flight arriving in Duluth at 2:00. The flight was overbooked, and the takeoff was delayed. Long story short: I got $1,000 for being bumped, took a bus to Duluth and arrived at 6:00. The plane I was bumped from didn't get in until 4;00, so that was pretty good pay for a two-hour delay.
Sunday we started our trip with 5 guests and our guide, Dorian Anderson. Dorian did a big year of his own in 2014 when he saw 618 species while bicycling 17,830 miles!
Dorian helped us find many nice birds today, starting with our number one target, a great gray owl.
Here is my best picture of a great gray owl I saw in 2011
And here is my best picture of the great gray owl I saw today:
Looks like I had some condensation on the lens.
Our number two target was snowy owl. We could not find one in the place where it had been seen regularly, As we pulled away, we slowed down to look at a Sasquatch.
Dorian noticed something white near the top of the large tee on the left of the Sasquatch.
A closer look revealed - a snowy owl!
Other nice sightings included;
Northern Shrike
Pine Grosbeak
White-breasted Nuthatch
Porcupine
Common Redpolls
We saw many birds that I did not get pictures of including black-billed magpie, hoary redpoll, evening grosbeak, and ruffed grouse. We also saw three coyotes.
Tomorrow morning we bid farewell to Duluth and head north to Superior National Forest. We will end the day in Grand Marais. I will start the day with 222 species for the year.
Farewell Duluth!
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