This winter birding season is crazy … crazy good in many respects. Yesterday a friend came north from the Twin Cities to hopefully see some Great Gray Owls. Anyhow, “old gray” came through and in only 3 hours of birding we saw ten owls … four by ourselves without another human present.
Another crazy aspect about this winter’s birding is twice in the past week I have gone out looking for Pine Grosbeaks. These beautiful birds this winter are a much harder find than owls. In fact I have only seen two Pine Grosbeaks all winter. I have lost track of how many Great Gray Owls I have watched.
Some pics from yesterdays’ owling … I only photographed 8 of the 10. I let my friend photograph the other two owls. Don’t miss the hunt images or the Ruffed Grouse at the end of the post.
Great Gray Owl #1
Great Gray Owl #2
Great Gray Owl #3
Great Gray Owl #4 (Signs of an Irruption)
Great Gray Owl #5
Great Gray Owl #6
Great Gray Owl #7
Great Gray Owl #8 (The Hunt … Unsuccessful)
Closely inspect these next two images. The owl is essentially hovering in place, but losing altitude as it adjusts its attack using sound triangulation. A Great Gray’s ears are offset and its brain essentially uses trigonometry to collect the sound and determine attack vectors. 
Two Ruffed Grouse
Grouse #1
Grouse #2
