Great Gray Owl Hunts During a Snowfall

Year 11

This morning was truly special. I was privileged to find and watch four unique species of owls in Northeastern Minnesota … all before 11 am! My first find was a Northern Hawk Owl up in Sax-Zim Bog at 7:00 am, 20 minutes before sunrise. From that point I moved along to various locations both in and outside Sax-Zim and found a Snowy Owl, this Great Gray Owl, and I ended the morning with Les, my local Great Horned Owl. After many days of wind, it was finally calm with snow falling lightly through the air. Make certain you watch the video (link for email subscribers), it is calming … at least it was for me.

And some still images of the Great Gray Owl hunting during the snowfall

For various reasons the other owl species did not perform well for my camera. The Snowy Owl was perched in a meadow many hundreds of yards distant. The Great Horned Owl was tucked up in its “hidey hole”, and the Northern Hawk Owl was close, but contrasted against a blah sky. I had a great time.

Northern Hawk Owl

Fox Hunt … the Pounce and Kill

Year 11

Saturday morning I was treated to something I rarely get to watch. While I often see both Red and Gray Foxes (Gray frequents my feeders), it is unusual that I get a nice vantage point for watching a hunt. These canines have a particular way to capturing their prey … launch off their hind legs … leap through the air … and land with their front legs down to capture their prey.

I was quite a ways distant, but if I had been close the fox would have seen me and run into the woods.

Red Fox … Hunt and Pounce

SuperbOwl Sunday

Year 11

It has become traditional for those of us who don’t “live for the Super Bowl”, but love birding to focus upon a certain effort on a particular Sunday in February. In my case it may be withdrawal symptoms from sitting through four Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl defeats during my high school and college days. My friends at college loved to tell me how my much loved Vikings were choke artists. I had problems not agreeing with the sentiment.

Regardless, I decided to focus of SuperbOwl Sunday today. Shortly after sunrise we had a rare commodity here at the Head of the Lakes, sun! I easily found, Les, my love struck Poppa Great Horned Owl. This morning Les was not willing to wake up. Unless you are a photographer that is a good thing … the owl was obviously not stressed by my being in the vicinity.

This afternoon, I returned to the Lester / Amity Forest Trails. For a long time the owl ignored me. In fact, while it looks like Les is looking at me in the second image, he only perked up when  two cyclists rode on the trail ten feet below my spot, and near his white pine. The cyclists never saw me or the owl.  Happy #SuperbOwlSunday.