Well actually -23F, but the alliteration sounds better on just the plain word “twenty”. Anyhow at 7:45 am this morning I was filling my own bird feeders (all eight of them), and noticed as I moved off a few feet that the chickadees seemed upset. I looked up and realized my feeders had another visitor, a Barred Owl! I could not have been more than six feet away from the owl at this time. The Barred Owl has now flown around our yard a bit, but is presently back to the same exact perch right above one of the feeders where I first saw the bird … the first image shown … ten yards from our living room window!
First view … and the owl is now back two hours later at 9:45 am in the same exact spot.
More views of the new “Amity Owl”! It flew around the yard a bit as the Chickadees chased it from perch to perch.
Photo taken by my wife, Molly, with her iPhone!
Very cool! How long will the Owls stick around the Duluth/Superior area and the bog area? Thru March? I can’t get up there until then 🙁
Holly: Our native owls in northern Minnesota are obviously here year round (Great Horned, Barred, Great Gray, etc,). However after the snow melts the owls get harder to find as both for “interest in mating” and “easier hunting” in the deep woods. From a practical standpoint, easier owling ends about March 1st. Snowy Owls and Northern Hawk Owls will fly back north during March. By April 1st seeing either of those two species is extremely unusual.
After our own owls nest, and stop hooting they will be almost impossible till their young start to move around a bit in April. During April and May, pay attention to your local crows. They the to know where the owls are living, and will make incredible rackets many times per day as they dive bomb meeting locations.
Cold but bright & clear. Seems perfect for pics of that precious owl.
beautiful! there’s been one around here the past few weeks