Before Heading home from the Saz-Zim Bog Bird Fest

Monday Feb 17, 2015:    Last night we went to Bellisio's for a wonderful dinner, it was a bit pricy and not the Best we have had but very good and close enough to walk.   Watched some of the SNL 40th,  it was nice to sleep in today!  No plans today so we just took our time, had breakfast in the hotel, then headed out at about 8:00am.

Off to the bog...  one last time to look for some of those elusive birds!  We ran into some of our new birding friends doing the same thing!  It was a bit warmer today, started out at 1 deg and was at least 10 deg by the time we got to the bog.  We figured the birds would be out on a nice warm day!

Our first sighting was the Sharp Tailed Grouse!  we actually seen 8 of them do the dance!  They actually flew closer so we could get pictures

We went next to find the Black Backed Woodpecker...  did not find him, but we did see a woodpecker in the right place but could not ID it as the Black Backed!  will try again when we come home in April.

We did see a Black Billed Magpie that sat for a picture

a Boreal Chickadee and a Black Capped Chickadee

A Northern Shrike

what we hope is the Gyrfalcon (this would be a new one) but we just don't know.. it is in the correct location but we need a scope and a guide to confirm. so not this year!

A pair of Peregrine Falcons in the same area

It was a great weekend, despite the bitter cold, we had a wonderful time, met wonderful people and as always enjoyed the North Shore of MN!

Arrived home before dark at about 5:00 pm!