The tall pines of Isabella, MN, make for a perfect winter wonderland landscape.
This past week, my return to the North Woods of Minnesota has been full of winter fun. The snow came down non-stop for three days, creating plentiful opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, boot hockey, and really terrible driving conditions. On the 30th of December, I got to participate in a winter tradition that stretches way beyond the North Woods, or even Minnesota - the annual Christmas bird count.
At 9:00AM, I gathered with ten other birders in a small café in Isabella, MN, about twenty minutes inland from Finland. There were ten teams total, comprising about 40 birders. Together, our job was to survey a circle (15-mile diameter) around the Isabella township for all the birds we could see. Each team was assigned a section of the circle, our team responsible for the eastern quarter. This year, over 2,000 circles across the United States and Canada were or will be surveyed between December 14 and January 5. The Christmas Bird Count is a citizen science survey, in that anyone who wants to volunteer can participate and gather data. While the surveying techniques are not scientifically fool-proof, the data gathered from this survey for the last 113 years have been invaluable in a number of areas of ornithological research, especially conservation.
After assigning our areas to survey, I joined MJ (fellow Wolf Ridge second-year naturalist), Jenna (WR first-year naturalist), Carrie (WR staff member and marketing extraordinaire), and Margie (former WR naturalist and bird banding mentor) as we drove to a couple of different trails in our zone. The morning mostly consisted of birding on foot as we hiked different areas, stopping frequently to look for movement and listen for bird sounds. The trails we hiked were unbelievably quiet and still. While hiking, we only spotted two downy woodpeckers all morning. However, while driving back for our lunch break, we stopped and saw seven black-capped chickadees, two red-breasted nuthatches, two more downy woodpeckers, and a red crossbill (a new bird for me!) perched on top of a spruce tree, calling loudly.
Winter birding.
The downy woodpeckers were particularly exciting for us to spot because of some additional research that was taking place. Some researchers are looking to learn more about what species of trees downy woodpeckers tend to feed on. So when we spotted a downy woodpecker, we not only recorded the sighting, but also what species of tree it was perched on if displaying feeding behavior (hopping around, pecking at the tree, etc.) For the record, we saw two feeding on birch trees, and two on dead aspen trees.
A somewhat blurry downy woodpecker feeding on a birch tree.
In the afternoon, I got to strap on some cross-country skis for the first time this winter and Carrie and I surveyed a trail that would have been otherwise inaccessible. It was awesome to be back on skis and, even though the trail was not groomed for XC skis, a number of snow-mobiles had thoughtfully packed the snow down for us. Again, a fairly still afternoon - one black-capped chickadee and three red-breasted nuthatches added to our list. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful area to ski in especially as the sun started to set and the light hit the snow on the trees.
"Almost looks like a Dr. Seuss book." -Carrie Anderson
We spent the last hour car birding along some of the roads that we hadn't covered yet. As night set in, we got to add two more birds to our list - two ruffed grouses perched high up in trees, silhouetted against the darkening sky. At the end of the day, all of the Isabella birders gathered for lasagna and the sharing of our data. In total 865 birds from 20 different species were counted, which is slightly lower than average for the Isabella area bird count. Nonetheless, it was a great day of birding and enjoying the beautiful landscape created by the snowfall - the North Woods of Minnesota at its finest.
A ruffed grouse perched in the top of a tree at the end of the day.
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