Tag Archives: MN North: Lakewood

Scoring the Owl Trifecta: Boreal, Great Gray & Great Horned Owls

Year 12, ,

The Owl Irruption means crazy birding excursions like mine yesterday afternoon are possible. In just over one hour, I saw all three species of these owls: Boreal, Great Gray & Great Horned Owls. I consider myself lucky to live in the Northland where all three of these owls species both live, but also some of their cousins from north of the border will occasionally pay us a visit. Normally owl irruptions end on or about March 1st, which is only 11 days away. Anyhow, yesterday’s terrific trio! Did I mention it was cold? All three owls wanted sun, but also to avoid the fierce Northwest wind. This morning it is -15F to 25F below zero depending upon where you live (real cold air collects at the bottom of hills).

Boreal Owl (sleeping in the sun … it did apparently not move for the next four hours)

Great Gray Owl (trying to get comfortable within its pine needle mattress before a snooze)

Amy! My local Great Horned Owl

The sun is finally peeking out between the trees at 7:20 am. Time to go make my rounds of all three bird feeder stations. My feathered friends should all be hungry after such a cold night.

Great Gray Owls in a SnowStorm

Year 12

Saturday was a ugly day, and all the owls … both our locals and irruption migrants … decided they needed to hunt DURING the storm. For Great Gray Owls which catch prey by hearing mice and voles running beneath the snow, I can’t believe they had much success. It goes to show, hunger is a great motivator. Make certain you watch the videos. The snow was coming down at an amazing rate (Video links for email subscribers: Owl#1 | Owl#2 | Owl#3). I will be following this post up with a “morning after the storm” addition to this blog!

Finally here are some still images taken during storm. I actually hung out at home till the worst of the storm hit. Thankfully, none of these owls were over 10 miles from my home. I just slowed down my driving and took my time. I was actually somewhat amazed I found any owls given the poor visibility. Luck (and some skill) definitely played a role.

Just prior to the storm … unlike us, owls don’t get to use weather apps to learn that a storm in coming

Great Gray Owls during the storm. The last owl was in a ravine, which I thought was smart, but then it flew up to a non protected area. In the fourth image, the owl is shaking show off its head … thus the bit of blur.

Flight shots. Quite frankly I am amazed I not only found these owls, but managed to photograph them in flight.

Northern Snowbird vs. Southern Beach Bum Owls!

Year 12,

Molly and I just completed 3 days of driving across America … south to north. During my last day in the Fort Myers area I revisited the Pelican Ballfields in Cape Coral. Although for this northern boy the winter temperatures seemed warm early in the morning (45F and sun), I suspected the local Burrowing Owls might think that a calm, sunny morning after two days of rain and mid 40’s were worth catching the sun’s rays like their northern cousins. Upon arriving home, I visiting with the northern cousins of the Beach Bums!

I was correct in that assumption, the “beach bum” owls were out getting warm near their burrow’s entrances.

“Beach Bum” Burrowing Owls of Cape Coral!

Northern Owls love to sit in the sun on sunny calm windless mornings. Look for the owls on the northern side of forest roads catching the rays from the sun in the southern sky. Anyhow, upon arriving home yesterday afternoon a bit before 3 pm, after taking 1/2 hour to unpack and stow away warm weather gear from the car, I was off to enjoy our local owl irruption. I did not need to travel far, and found two Great Grays hunting.

Great Gray Owls … the northern beach bum’s cousins!

Owl #1

Owl #2

I was actually home from my birding excursion within two hours of when I first got home from Florida. It was time for a leisurely glass of wine!