Monthly Archives: November 2022

Habitat, Hunting & Weather: Great Gray Owl

Year 9,

I am putting the final touches on my presentation for my two talks later this week in the Chicago area. Understanding that the Great Gray Owl is often the “star of the show” when visiting Sax-Zim Bog, I have created this blog post which explains items important to both me and the owl in terms of a successful birding excursion.

First I do weather planning. Given Great Gray Owls hunt by hearing mice and voles running beneath the snow, or deep in the tall grasses, winds make hunting & hearing very difficult. I had planned on arriving at Sax-Zim Bog right at sunrise this morning. However an inspection of my weather app at 4:45 am showed I was very unlikely to have any owling success. Here are four annotated screenshots from my weather app, Weawow (available for both Android and Apple).

Here in the final screenshot notice that the winds will abate towards sunset today (around 5 pm). Cloud cover will be increasing as generally Great Gray Owls will not hunt during the day if there are bright, sunny conditions. Thus, guess when I am going birding?!

Here are some Great Gray Owl “hunt” photographs from a prior birding expedition of mine. The first image is of the impact area where the owl punched through the snow. The Great Gray heard the vole running underneath the snow and struck! Amazing.

The Impact Area

The Capture (maximize images to see the vole)

Here are four more photographs I took from another Great Gray Owl hunting experience where you see the strike / punch through the snow.

A Great Gray Owl’s ears are offset on its head, which is why the bird turns and twists its head to better triangulate the location of its prey (video link for email subscribers). Think trigonometry!

Finally … habitat. Great Gray Owls are birds of the Boreal Forest, but where in the boreal forest?? Generally in the winter months if you are able to find bog areas with lots of cattails (food for mice and voles) with plenty of deadheads (hunting perches) and nearby cover (spruce trees), there is a good chance you will find Great Gray Owls.

This summer I found this neat boggy area in a different part of northern Minnesota. I know this habitat holds owls in the winter. (video links for email subscribers: one | two)

My scouting drives in the Pine Island State Forest near Big Falls, Minnesota.

Plus one final image from that same summer morning

Assuming you’ve read this far down in my post, this material will be used in my Northeast Minnesota Birding Presentations (Sax-Zim Bog focus). See the outline!

Buy a Vowel Birding!

Year 9,

I forgot to utilize “Buy a Vowel Birding” over the past few days. Many Arctic birds are now visitors near the Head of Lakes, including the first Snowy Owls of the season (one in Superior, and one in Ashland). I went looking for the Snowy Owl in Ashland, but missed seeing the bird. I know the owl is still in the area. I forgot to buy a vowel … the letter “Y” (sometimes a vowel) to make Snowy.

  • I found Snow Geese
  • I saw lots of Snow Buntings
  • I missed seeing the Snow”y” owl.

Anyhow, the other snow birds from the past two days.

Snow Bunting (these birds are some of the first to migrate back north in February)

Snow Geese (two very unusual morphs in terms of their coloration)

I also went out birding this morning which was the Deer Hunting Opener. One should never be worried about birding during hunting season. Just use common sense:

  1. If you are birding the Boreal Forest and its bogs, you won’t find many hunters. Deer do not like bog habitat. Thus, deer hunters do not like bog habitat
  2. Should you bird areas that are deer habitat, ensure you bird 2+ miles from any location where trucks and SUV’s are parked.
  3. Wear Blaze Orange or Bright Red
  4. You will be safer in the woods, that most cities!

ChicagoLand Birding Talk!

Year 9
Well not the Great Gray Owl, but volunteer naturalist Rich Hoeg! Next week, on Wednesday and Thursday (November 9th and 10th), Rich will be the guest speaker for Kane County Audubon and the DuPage Birding Club. His presentation will focus primarily upon birding in Sax-Zim Bog. My Thursday evening presentation will be available via Zoom. Thus, you need not live in the Chicago area. My presentation outline.
.