Tag Archives: MN North: Pine Island State Forest

When Great Gray Owls Outnumber Humans!

Year 10

With yesterday’s post I showed the route I intended to take through the deep boreal wilderness near Minnesota’s border with Canada. I left my small motel 30 minutes before sunrise, and was rewarded with this view ten minutes before sunup.

Shortly thereafter the clouds took over, and light snow began to fall. I timed my entrance onto the back roads west of Big Falls with perfect timing. The light was just bright enough to bird. With dismay early on in my drive I realized that the bird I had just flushed from a spruce (unseen by me) looked like a Great Gray Owl … disappearing into the heavy woods.

200 hundreds down the road I stopped and exited my car. Within seconds the owl appeared another 100 yards down the road … gliding slowly across the road into the forest on the other side of the boggy meadow. My best view was very obstructed, and after waiting ten minutes and losing sight of the Great Gray Owl, I decided to continue my journey. However two miles down the road I had this conversation with myself:

  • Self #1: “Maybe the owl will come back out”
  • Self #2: “I don’t understand how the owl moved 300 yards that quickly to reappear on the other side of me. Might there be two owls?”
  • Self #3: “Nahhh!”

Anyhow I drove back very slowly (4 mph) and quickly spied an owl.

Great Gray Owl #1 (a juvenile, I think)

Suddenly it launched and swooped down towards the ground. Uff dah!!! There was a second Great Gray Owl on the ground not 50 yards away from me. It had just made a kill, and owl #2 (I assume a juvenile) wanted free food.

Great Gray Owl #2 (an adult, I think)

For the next 90 minutes I watched both owls hunt. It was in an area that I had always thought looked like perfect owl habitat. The light was poor, but the owling was fantastic! My only complaint of the morning was the two owls never landed / perched near each other. Owl #1 often flew right at Owl #2, which then always moved. It was too dark for flight photographs.

Ultimately I decided it would be hard to top this experience, and given the amount of time I had spent owling, it was time to head home. Life is good, but the bucket list drive will have to occur another day! And if that is not enough, while typing out this post shortly after 6 pm (very dark here in northern Minnesota … sunset was at 4:25 pm over 90 minutes ago), my local Great Horned Owls are hooting up a storm in my yard. It actually sounds like Poppa Owl and a youngster begging for food. I guess they don’t want me to get too enamored with the “other owls!” (as a fyi … male and female Great Horned Owls have much different pitched level hoots … kids begging is begging the whole world over. Most people would not even recognize the screeches as a juvenile owl begging)

Incoming! Birding Journey Ahead!

Year 10

I am staying in a delightful little motel up in Littlefork, Minnesota (near Minnesota’s northern border with Canada). Marsha is the hostess / owner, and she is well known in the birding community as providing a great friendly place to stay “up north”. Check out the Home Town Motel.

I am birding the Pine Island State Forest. The lack of snow so far to start this winter means I have great access to the back country. Yesterday afternoon I was in birding heaven on Toomey Williams Forest Road. Today I will drive the route I have always wanted to take in early winter … Big Falls to Waskish. My 70 mile route once I leave Big Falls will be devoid of any civilization, even one single cabin … two hours on dirt roads without any backtracking! The dropped pin is at the end of Toomey Williams Forest Road, and where I normally turn back towards Big Falls.

Here are just two photographs from yesterday afternoon. I will work on more later, but it’s 6 am and time to get my act in gear.

Incoming! (Immature Male Pine Grosbeak)

Take-Off!

Northern Minnesota Morning Grouse

Year 10,

It was a grousy morning … clear skies, only 25F and a heavy frost. Molly and I had travelled over to our small cabin in the first lake of the Hudson Bay Watershed yesterday afternoon. I needed to drain and water system before the season’s cold froze everything up. This meant a refreshing dip into the lake (we pump lake water), followed by crawling under the cabin to disconnect pipes to drain the system at its low points. When we arrived at the cabin yesterday evening, the temperature was in the mid 40’s … inside and out. Obviously it was necessary to fire up the wood stove (our source of heat) quickly!

However I was allowed to play in the morning before doing my chores. For me this meant a trip deep into the Pine Island State Forest near the Canadian border. Per normal once I drove west on the local roads from Big Falls, nary a car would I see for hours. It was fun to walk within a few feet of some Spruce Grouse. These birds are notoriously dumb, and if you are lucky enough to bird somewhere that the grouse don’t get hunted much, getting close is not too difficult.

Upon getting back to Northstar Lake, a Ruffed Grouse decided it wanted equal time. This bird was enjoying some sun on my driveway. It is also a bit more touchy when it comes to humans. My forest road gets hunted, and this grouse seems to have learned to spend time on my driveway (not out on the forest road). I have seen this particular bird often.

Finally, here is an image I took at sunrise this morning in the Boreal Bog. Heavy frost was evident, and standing water had iced over.

In closing, we are going out to dinner this evening  at a local bar near Marcell tonight. They have water to do dishes *rather than me lugging it up from the lake), and we may use their bathrooms before reverting to our outhouse later tonight!