Sometimes you get lucky! I was driving home yesterday from birding hear the Canadian border (good times … more later), and decided to swing by Sax-Zim Bog. I wanted to see if I could find the Northern Hawk Owl that has been haunting Hwy. 7. Northern Hawk Owls are notorious for using the same hunting territory, and when I arrived at my desired point shortly after lunch there was not a single car to be seen on Hwy 7 (not a good sign if you are hoping for an owl … other cars are indicative of an owl sighting).

I scanned the horizon with my binoculars and spotted the Hawk Owl over 2/3 of a mile distant. Oh well, I thought; many be it will move closer. I settled down to wait and then the owl disappeared. 30 seconds later it landed on a power pole right next to me!

Then the magic happened. With almost any other raptor I am able to tell when they will take off, with the Northern Hawk Owl I can not figure out when a take-off is imminent, and these owls are fast. Within a micro second they are out of your frame, and forget tracking.

As I said … I got lucky. The NHO took off and immediately turned back towards me while I was in the process of taking multiple pictures. Yippy!

Northern Hawk Owl Take-Off (if you can tell from the second image the owl is about to take off, you have a better understanding of these birds than me … it looks like the bird is about to take a snooze)

End Location … a RR Signal Pole right above me

A few more photos of my signature bird!