Patriotic HAWK OWL & Feasting ERMINE - Sax-Zim February Virtually Live 43: S4E8

Early February in northern Minnesota's Sax-Zim Bog. Despite being nearly snowless, the birds and wildlife are here in abundance-Ermine darting about and feeding, Ruffed Grouse doing their balancing act high in the birches, and a one very patriotic Northern Hawk Owl.
Sparky also meets a future "Bog Buddy," 8-year old Blake.
He also shares the results of the Tiny Bird Art auction 2024.

[@5831a]

awesome, LOVE the ermine!!

[@SparkyStensaas]

Thanks so much!

[@brighteyedbirding]

Very cool "red" Ruffed Grouse! I've never seen one of those. Just a regular one! Great video!

[@SparkyStensaas]

Thanks! The grouse population in general is quite high so I’ve been able to film them more.

[@deanyanko3326]

funny story, when I occupied this old farm house in northern Wisconsin, a white weasel scurried across the kitchen floor one day. He kept the vacant house free of the little ones. Its April 2024 and am enthused to go out to the woods to look for droppings of the ruffed grouse's drumming log. Be nice to run across a black bear. .

[@SparkyStensaas]

Interesting Dean! I’ve heard of other zoo have had them in the house and I guess they are an efficient mouse trap :-)

[@joseph2535]

Thanks for your videos! They're even better than being there in person 🙂 We were there the 6-9th. The WDIO weatherman referred to this year as The Lost Winter. There was hardly any snow. Temperatures were in the 30-40s. It rained one day. BTW, the welcome center is a great place to hang out during the rain. They have several huge windows that overlook feeders, a warm fireplace, hot coffee, friendly and knowledgeable staff. Mostly we saw ordinary northern species but we did see the hawk owl hanging around Byrns. Those people must be extremely patient because there's a constant line of cars parked along the road.

[@SparkyStensaas]

Thanks! Glad you had a good trip. I’m sure will be back to a normal winter next year. I have checked in with Debbie at Byrn’s greenhouse and she is fine with all the people. In fact, she said she enjoys the commotion! Her and her aunt and her brother live in those three houses along the road and all are very supportive of our organization.

[@jonathansteinbach580]

Fantastic work as usual. I had an ermine make a run at my feeder birds in January, but thankfully , the birds got away. Really surprised me, because I had never seen one before.

[@SparkyStensaas]

That’s cool! They are awesome little predators. One hung around my wood pile by the garage for a few weeks a few winters ago, but our free range chickens chased it off. :-)

[@terryroth2855]

Another enjoyable video, Sparky. I did not know the Ruffs had a red phase. Wondering if that phase is somewhat regional. Anyways, keep these great videos a coming.

[@SparkyStensaas]

I believe the red phase can be found across the range, but it is certainly not as common as the gray. Much speculation on why but nobody seems to have any answer for it.

[@deanyanko3326]

I wonder if its genes or diet as in the red color in cedar waxwings ?

[@ryanmarshik8971]

Blake gets my vote for superstar human 🥇

[@SparkyStensaas]

That should be a new category!

[@shreecreativearts5132]

Nice video,most of the time it is covered with snow

[@SparkyStensaas]

That's true!

[@stefangoldensteinwildlife9929]

The ermine is soo cool. very good footage ❤. Great photos of the owl. the grouse was new to me. Beautiful species. Very good video my friend. Greets Stefan

[@SparkyStensaas]

Thanks Stefan! Ruffed Grouse are very cool indeed!

[@augiebertrand]

Excellent video Sparky! The hawk owl in front of the flag was fun to see!

[@SparkyStensaas]

It is a funny juxtaposition!

[@buncha_jaggovfs]

another fantastic update

[@SparkyStensaas]

Glad you think so!