The Bog Owl

The Bog Owl

My name is Noel Larson. I am a woman. Though the spelling of my name may suggest otherwise. I saw The Barn Owl on New Year’s Day 2020 with my friends Mike and Shari and my husband Kirk. This is my story about that day.

Winter 2019-2020 is when the Boreal Owl was regularly at the Admiralty feeders. It is quiet and cold. Shari, Mike, Kirk and I are taking a casual birding trip to Sax-Zim Bog in the Meadowlands, Minnesota on New Year’s Day to go look for the Boreal Owl and simply bird. When I say casual it is important to note that I want the outing to be relaxed. Last night was a drinking holiday and as usual I went to bed early. I am well rested and alert.

It is 2:30 PM. Kirk and I meet Shari and Mike at Menards on the hill (Miller-Trunk HWY), the standard rendezvous point for caravanning or carpooling to the Bog.

Mike offers to drive. Shari and Kirk take the back seat. Kirk and Shari are co-workers at Epicurean Cutting Surfaces USA in Superior, Wisconsin. I sit shot gun (bird nerds up front, wanna be bird nerds in the back seat). Kirk and Shari are among the millions of un-named spouses and family members that support birders like Mike and I. They keep full time, year round jobs, while Mike and I cruise around back roads for the fun of it.

My guidelines for birding in the Bog. Not official!

1. Stay away from the very north end of Stickney Road just south of Sax Rd (CR 28). Use CR7 to get from the south part of the Bog (Arkola/CR52) to the north part (Sax Rd/CR28).

2. Be respectful of private property.

3. Park on the same side of the road as everyone else.

4. Be courteous to everyone, because it only takes one _ick or _unt birder (male or female) to ruin it completely. I will be honest I am guilty of breaking my own guidelines.

5. Be inclusive. My suggestion is try to avoid out doing someone else’s birding story. Maybe ask if they are interested in hearing about your experience with _____. (Easier said than done)

6. Clean up after yourself. Better yet, take some trash home with you and throw it away at home. (I am still practicing this one)

7. Outhouses are few in the Bog. So stop at a gas station, fill up on gas and go number 1 before entering the Bog. Be prepared for a nature pee.

8. Bring $5 or more for Mary Lou’s Feeders donation jar. She has a nice outhouse and blind. Plus that is where the Evening Grosbeaks are if you can get there early enough. I never can!

Here is a link to the most current Sax-Zim Bog Birding map at the time this story was written.

https://saxzim.org/birding-the-bog/birding-map-2018-19/

This is the link to their Birding/Photography Etiquette Reminder

https://saxzim.org/birding-the-bog/

Please read it before you go!

Okay.

Now that I got that out of the way, back to this Casual New Year’s Day Birding Adventure.

This trip is a double date. I didn’t really care what we see. I just want to be with Kirk and friends. This is the first time the four of us are together.

It is an hour and 15 minute drive to arrive on the outskirts of the Bog from the launching point.

We are at in the hunting grounds with about an hour of daylight left.

When I say hunting, it is a Throwback to the 1900’s or what I like to call James Audubon Days, where the naturalists were hunters and they shot the birds first and then took a closer look. I imagine James’ wife, I don’t even know her name, supported James as he drew, painted and shifted how we SEE birds rather than Shoot them. This is exactly how Shari and Kirk support Mike and me in our birding passion.

I am in the middle of reading Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile. After seeing the Barn Owl I am inspired finish the book on my trip to Maine. The book is about a famous woman birder, Phoebe Snetsinger. I mention that here because I am a Woman too, who like Phoebe, enjoys to bird while in pursuit of my inner truth.

In addition to bird books I recognize two other things that continue to propel me in birding. One is the amazing bird experiences as a volunteer scribe for MAPS birding banding project in the Fall at Hawk Ridge.1 Image 1. Secondly, are the women birders that strongly influence me: the late Karen Pitts-Stubenvoll, Janelle Long, Margie Menzies, Julia Elizabeth Janson and Anna Joles. Trust me when I say there are many more women, men, strangers and children that are not mentioned here, who teach me about not only about Birds, but they also teach me about myself, with patience and kindness.

We arrive in the Bog on Arkola Road. The roads are plowed and snow covered. The deceased porcupine that I saw November 2, 2019 is still up in the same tree. We say, “Hi Buddy.”

Kirk asks, “How do you know his name is Buddy?” Image 2.

Throwing caution to the wind, we turn right on Stickney Road en route to the Admiralty Road feeders. We are hoping to see the solitary Boreal Owl or Ermine that are reportedly hanging around this year.

No birds, not even a Black- capped chickadee.

As dusk approaches Mike traverses Kolu Road taking us West to Mc Davitt Road. We scan the tops of Balsam fir and Tamarack trees for Great Grey Owls that are known to perch in the area. Images 3 and 4.

Somewhere after the Mc Davitt Road parking pad Image 5 we halt the double date birding trip for a smoke break. Yes, we stopped the car to smoke. I mention that here because, being human isn’t always that easy. If we can do something to make ourselves or some else more comfortable, then STOP and DO IT. I am allergic to smoke. So Mike stopped the car so we could all get out and receive what we needed.

My late Grandma Mary smoked cigarettes. Image 6. Like my Mom (Penny) I am sensitive to cigarette smoke. My Mom (Image 7) tells me this story every once in a while. In 1978, when I was not yet two years of age, my parents (Penny and Norm) discharge from the noble US Air Force. My family moves to Minnesota (my father’s home state) from California. Grandma Mary (my Dad’s Mom) comes to help drive the second vehicle, most likely our yellow Renault LeCar. Image 8. My Mom recalls that the second we cross into the grand state of Minnesota, Grandma Mary rolls down the window, lights a cigarette and exclaims, “Mmmmm! Smell that fresh Minnesota air!”

In 1978 LeCar roared down the Interstate. No stopping. No meeting anyone’s needs. No expressing Your needs, so you get to feel safe or just alright. Maybe it wasn’t OK, THEN to express your needs and Know that your needs will met? In 2020 is it safe to express Your needs AND know that they will be met?

Mmmmmm, Fresh Minnesota air.

Smoke break complete, we hop back in the car ready to head home. A day of casual birding complete, but no birds spotted.

Mike turns East on to Zim Road. Then turns right on Highway 7 South bound and parallel to the railroad tracks.

Some moments after passing Stone Lake road, I see it. Out my passenger side window I see an owl flying. It turns its head and looks at ME. The lateral-shining head lights illuminate its stone cold, onyx eyes and turns them yellow, and it’s facial disk is so distinct.

I say, “That was A….. (the word Barn hesitant in my mouth, because it doesn’t make sense, and my brain can’t compute. What it is doing HERE?)

…Barn Owl.”

“Did anyone else see it?” I ask.

Mike is driving 55 miles per hour down MN HWY 7 and has His eyes on the road. Shari and Kirk are in the back seat. Shari has the next best view, because she is on the passenger side. The sun is set. Only faint colors from sunset remain. I am the only one with the ability to SEE the Barn Owl, because of the illumination from side facing part of the head lights. Damn.

I have NEVER SEEN a Barn Owl in my life. I have only read about barn owls in magazines and seen illustrations of them on posters. I attribute my my ability to identify a Barn Owl to Janelle, rhymes with Noel. I have always thought that it was her favorite bird. Pretty sure I have seen her with a canvas tote or T-shirt bearing this beloved owl.

Mike is driving and says, “Is it out of range for a Barn Owl to be in North Central Minnesota?” So I ask Shari to pass up the Sibley Guide to Birds book I brought with me. I want to check the color blobs that are drawn on the range maps for each species. And sure enough, No, there should not be a Barn Owl here. It just doesn’t make sense. “Was it a Snowy Owl?”

Nope, it had the unmistakable facial disk that a Barn Owl has. In Sibley’s Guide to Birds, Sibley portrays the Barn Owl Tyto alba as “Medium-sized, short tailed, and long-legged. Pale overall with fawn-colored upperside, white to buff underside, dark eyes and white face surrounded by a heart-shaped boarder.” (Sibley, 2014)

Pause. Breathe. Take that all in.

Heart Shaped.

Thanks Mr. David Sibley for those words. Thank you too to the women that supported you as you wrote and illustrated your guidebook.

So Mike, Shari, Kirk and I are back in the car heading home passing Byrns Greenhouse in disbelief. Mike suggests reaching out to some fellow birders to play the “What else could it be?” game.

I Facebook message John Richardson, text Jason Heinen and eventually text Alex Lamoreaux. I am unsure about contacting the professionals. Okay, maybe not Jason, but John and Alex, yeah. I am, as Margie Menzies says, a bird nerd in training.

Tonight, I claim, I definitely saw a Barn Owl.

Ten Days Later…

It is now 5:58PM January 11th, 2020 just 4 days before leaving Duluth, Minnesota to travel to Bluff House Inn in Winter Harbor, Maine for Springtide Seaweed’s Alaria Harvesting and Processing Course hosted by Sarah Redmond and Trey Angera.

Kirk and I are just returning home from watching the Vikings game at Dan Larva’s house.

I look at my smart phone and see a Facebook Messenger message from John Richardson. He is sharing with me a screen shot from Heidi Novak @ Chasing Ghosts Photography. Heidi has a picture of the Barn Owl I found. Image 9

A little while later Jason Heinen calls me. He says, “You DID see a Barn Owl! You saw it first!”

I am home. I am with Kirk. I am dancing in the front room of our Duluth apartment in 2nd Street. Singing and dancing. I did it. I knew it. I am a superstar. I told you so. I saw a Barn Owl. I am SO Overflowing with Energy!

Tonight I write in my personal, Saturday January 11 2020-

Barn Owl sighting from New Year’s Day Bog Adventure with Shari, Mike Farmer and Kirk CONFIRMED. I feel so happy and satisfied. Chickens are flipped as Dan Liden with say. Watched Vikings game at Dan Larva’s house. Phil, Pat, Erin where there too. Izzy girl, got my pets in. Talked with Erin a lot. AZ Scottsdale Camelback Mountain hike. Kirk and I had a beginning money talk. Tried to get all our monthly and annual expenses down. Cried but glad to have taken that 1st step.

Trip to Maine and Bluff House Inn 4 days away. Part of me doesn’t want to come back from the trip and I haven’t even left yet. Reading Life List. Still need to look up tides for Maine trip. –End journal entry

I want to take a minute to flashback to another book, yeah, another one! Hawks on High: Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season. Image 10. (Fitzpatrick, 2019). Page 14 Perfect Day in Duluth. Phil has captured my essence in a poem. What I want to tell most about birding, is how it brings us together. We travel great distances to see ONE Bird. And when you are there, listen to the conversations, look around at everyone, smell, observe, and take it all in. There is SO MUCH MORE to Birding than the birds.

The birds bring us together and then we go apart. When you get home who do you tell about your birding trip? How long do they listen? Do they ask any questions?

I also remember Phil’s brother from Cornell Labs. He gave a talk one year 2019 or 2018 during the Hawk Ridge Festival weekend. This event is held the third weekend of September every year to coincide with the peak of Broad-wing Hawk migration. We, the birders, sat in Bohannon Hall on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus and listened. There are two things I remember from his talk.

1.) The colors on the range maps are more of a suggestion.

2.) Go and talk about birds with people that ARE NOT Birders!

Works Cited

Fitzpatrick, Phil. (2019) Hawks on High: Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season. Brule. Savage Press.

Sibley, David A. (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York. Alfred A. Knopf.