Great Gray Owl Irruption???

Year 7
I spent quality time before church this morning with a Great Gray Owl. In fact, I left this owl while it was still actively hunting. Even in this Pandemic, I needed to get home in time for church! We do church live via the internet, and as much as it was extremely difficult to walk away from this owl when I knew more fun was in store (i.e. its continuing hunt), one must have priorities in life (serious comment).
One fyi … originally I was 50 yards from this bird, when it decided to fly over and land very near me … a special moment as I knew I was not disturbing the hunt. In fact, in the owl’s world I did not even exist.
I am not quite ready to call this winter an irruption in terms of Great Gray Owls but they are appearing throughout Northeastern Minnesota, not just at Sax-Zim Bog. I am also not sure if all the owls we are seeing are strictly “local birds” (i.e. good breeding season last Summer) or whether some of the GGO’s are also down from Canada.
On the hunt … a dark and gloomy day w/o any wind (perfect for owls)

Always important to get images that show the full environment

This Great Gray Owl was so cooperative, I could slowly move around to get different compositions (artistic presentation)

Another Sunset … Another Owl! Northern Hawk Owl

Year 7

Owls two days in a row a sunset means the northern owls are arriving in our area. After seeing my first Snowy of the season two nights ago, yesterday at sundown it was my first Northern Hawk Owl.

This morning my plan is to go look for Snowy Owls out on some early harbor ice. It was almost three years ago exactly, I found and rescued Sky the Snowy Owl.