Greetings from the legendary Sax-Zim Bog … a location for birders equivalent to Wrigley Field for baseball fans or the Augusta National for golfers.

The bog is 300+ square miles of mixed spruce, aspen, tamarack and pine forest, diverse animal life (wolves, deer and moose) and of course birds.

And it is cold.  Damn cold.  Unbelievably cold.

This morning when we left our lodge, the wind chill factor was -33 degrees.  Thank goodness for hand-warmers and our guide’s warm Subaru Outback.

We had a very successful first day in the Bog, identifying 11 new species for the year (bringing our total to 121).  More importantly we had two new life birds . . . a rare Northern Hawk Owl and the Black-billed Magpie.  Thanks to our guide Judd Brink for his expert help!

Tomorrow we hope to find the elusive Great Gray Owl.

By tradition, birders have a piece of pie after seeing a life bird.  In this case of this birding couple, it was a shared piece of Coconut Cream Pie.