IRON RANGE TOURISM | Stone Lake Canoe & Kayak Field Trip
There are plenty of opportunities to navigate the terrestrial biodiversity of the Sax-Zim Bog, but it is not often that folks choose to explore the waterways around the Sax-Zim Bog. This trip will be a relaxed paddle around Stone Lake! Please bring your own canoe/kayak, paddles, and life jackets.
September 17th starting at 9am and launching water craft from the Stone Lake Boat Launch. Sax-Zim Bog is located 50 minutes from Duluth, 40 minutes from Virginia, and 3 hours from Minneapolis. The address is:
Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center 8793 Owl Avenue, Toivola, MN 55765
Long known among serious birders as THE place to find northern owls and finches in winter and warblers and other boreal birds in summer, the Sax-Zim Bog is a “magic mix” of habitats that attracts a unique array of species not found in other parts of the United States.
Encompassing an area of more than 300 square miles that spans from Zim in the north to nearly Floodwood in the south, and from the Toivola Swamp east to Stone Lake and US HWY 53, the land within these loose boundaries contains not only black spruce and tamarack bog, but upland aspen/maple forests, floodplain forest, sandy upland pine stands, rivers, lakes, farms, meadows, and towns. This is the magic mix that makes the area so attractive to so many different species. Great Gray Owls, for example, can find the large tracts of unbroken bog forest they require for nesting, but also the open meadows they need for hunting Meadow Voles in winter.
The Sax-Zim Bog is prime habitat for bog specialists including the aforementioned Great Gray Owl, Black-backed Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Canada Jay, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and Connecticut Warbler. On top of this you can find grassland species like LeConte’s Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Sedge Wren, Bobolink, and Brewer’s Blackbird during the summer months, with Northern Shrikes, Rough-legged Hawks, and sometimes Snowy Owls using those same habitats during the winter. The riverine forests of the St. Louis and Whiteface Rivers may not hold much attention during the winter, but are home to hard to find species in northern Minnesota like Wood Thrush, Great Crested Flycatchers, Scarlet Tanagers, and increasing Yellow-throated Vireos during the summer months.
But it’s not just birds. Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Head Naturalist Clinton Dexter-Nienhaus has been compiling a master list of all species seen in the area, and the list is now over 2,400 species and is growing every year! We have recorded over 500 species of moth, around 360 species of wildflowers, over 120 species of grass and sedge, nearly 100 species of spider, 84 species of dragonfly and damselfly, 81 species of butterfly, almost 80 species of lichen, and 37 species of fish, just to name a few groups. That is what we call “BogDiversity”! Every year we get visitors that wish to experience some of this non-bird biodiversity, through specific visits or by attending field trips and education events like our BioBlitz!
Located an easy 50-minute drive north west of Duluth, Minnesota, the Sax-Zim Bog is easily accessible by many dirt and paved roads. Lodging is available in Duluth, Floodwood, Cloquet, Eveleth, Virginia and Hibbing. Birding in the Sax-Zim Bog is done primarily from the roadside (in both winter and summer), but there are options for those wishing to get off trail. The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog own approximately 524 acres of land through the Sax-Zim Bog and have recently made accessing the bog a little easier through the addition of rustic hiking trails and boardwalks on our properties.
