All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

And then the weather changed! Owls Hunting!

Year 11

Here in the Northland we had 3 days of severe cold, with two days hitting -22F (actual, not chill factor) up at my Greenwood Bird Feeders. One day I braved the cold to resupply the feeders, but the second day … not! However yesterday afternoon the wind switched and the mercury soared to +28F, which was a 50 degree temperature swing from the prior morning.

The Great Gray Owls understood it was now balmy on the Arctic Riviera and they started to hunt in the early afternoon. I saw two unique owls, and I heard of many more sightings. Here are some of my favorite images from the afternoon “hunt fest”. I spent over one hour with the owls!

In the video, listen! It is quiet. You can hear a car in the distance, but then silence rules.  Remember Great Gray Owls hunt by sound, not sight (video link for email subscribers)

And the still images. The flight image is one of the instances where the owl dove for its prey.

Amity Great Horned Owls Demand Equal Time!

Year 11,

Les and Amy are upset! After all they sing for me every night … a regular hoot fest. As we keep a window cracked open every night, I often hear the owls right from my own bed. Even though the mercury dipped to -13F last night, the famous pair sang while I listened all warm and snuggled up in my bed. Here is a 30 second sound clip I recorded a few mornings ago. The low sound in between hoots is actually Amity Creek, which given it was almost ice covered the sound was definitely just a quiet babbling brook (video/sound link for email subscribers)

Why were my local owls upset? They knew I had come home after photographing the “white owl!”. Yup, There are a couple of Snowy Owls in the Duluth area already this winter, and I quite often find one or two.

Snowy Owl Starting the Evening Hunt

Finally, I performed some format edits / updates very early this morning to the PDF of Northeastern Minnesota Birding Locations. The new vile (version 6) was uploaded and went live at 6 am CST. If you have the prior version (see file name), you may wish to download a new copy. There were no content changes. I have found reading the PDF works best in landscape mode on my phone.

Your Christmas Present from 365 Days of Birds!

Year 11

I have been working upon the creation of a PDF document which anyone may download at no charge (i.e. free!). The PDF may be loaded to any computer or mobile device and lists my favorite Northeast Minnesota Birding Locations … with …

  • Descriptions
  • Google Maps GPS Links
  • Web Links to Additional Information

You will need to fill out the short form given below which asks for ZERO Private Information! Upon pressing submit you will be redirected to the actual download page.

eMail subscribers to this blog may need to directly visit the web page that generated this blog post to initiate the download process. (direct web page access link)