Northwoods Hunter: Great Gray Owl

Year 7

This morning I explored a new area, and I found this Great Gray Owl. This sequence of images shows its successful hunt. Given the dark conditions I was not able to get many flight shots, but it was fun to watch.

First found … thankfully atop a pine (easily viewable)

Intense Concentration … vole underneath the snow

Strike! (Great Gray Owls hunt using their ears to hear mice and voles running underneath the snow)

Breakfast (in the cropped close-up you are able to see the vole’s tail)

Typical Flight Show (away from me with a busy background)

Hunting anew … well camouflaged

Crabapple Craziness

Year 7

Three years ago in the winter while out owling I found a huge grove of crabapples. Ever since, each winter I always check the grove for birds. Eventually it will become a magnet for winter finches and other birds. This winter is no different. I first checked the crabapple grove about one month ago … no birds. Yesterday afternoon I returned and hit the jackpot … over 150 pine grosbeaks, 70+ Bohemian Waxwings, and one Northern Shrike (it eats songbirds and mice). A few images from the crabapple grove.

Bohemian Waxwing (big cousin of Cedar Waxwings … live up in the Canadian Boreal Forest in the Summer)

Northern Shrike

Pine Grosbeaks

Favorite Owling Spots!

Year 7
Just like folks have favorite fishing spots, Great Gray Owls have preferred hunting perches. Found this owl exactly 24 hours and 20 feet away from where I first found the bird yesterday. I do not exist in the owl’s world. It never looked at me once! North of Duluth … not the Bog.
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As I create this post around 5 pm, my local Great Horned Owl couple are hooting away their love for each other. They should renest in a little under two months. Remember, my children’s book, Do You Hoot?, is available for free download.