Great Gray Owl Hunting

It was quite windy earlier this week, and when Tuesday morning was forecast to be calm and overcast … hopefully with no rain, I trekked over to Sax-Zim Bog. Not many returning migrants were yet around with the exception of Sandhill Cranes which I saw many places. One of my bigger surprises was finding a huge flock of evening grosbeaks … mixed sexes. I would have though these finches would have returned deeper into the Boreal Forest in preparation for the breeding season, but the grosbeaks were not in any hurry to end their winter patterns.

Later in the morning, I stumbled across a Great Gray Owl in an unusual location hunting long into the daylight hours. The owl even put up with small amounts of drizzle. I watched the Great Gray hunt for over 75 minutes with nary a car or other person present.

Here is my first view of the owl … however within 10 minutes it flew over to hunt only 20 yards from where I was standing!