February 5, 2012
Read MoreNorthern Hawk Owl 001
A friend mentioned that a Northern Hawk Owl has been hanging around Gooseberry Falls State Park for the last few weeks. Karla and I had an appointment in Duluth on Tuesday so I planned to stop at Gooseberry and try to get some photos. The nice thing about Northern Hawk Owls is that they feed during the day and let you get pretty close. After parking by the visitor center I followed the bike trail to Hwy 61 where the owl has been hanging out. It took me about 30 minutes to find the owl perched on a branch. It was moving its head back and forth listening for mice in the tall grass.Northern Hawk Owl 003
After photographing the owl for about 10 minutes I was startled when it flew straight at me missing my head by just a few feet. It landed in a spruce tree right behind me. It didn’t take long to realize the reason why. The owl had cached a mouse on the limb of the spruce tree planning to come back and eat it later. Since I was standing close to the mouse it must have got nervous that I was going to eat its lunch. The mouse can be seen in the lower left corner of this photo.