February 10, 2013
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Boreal Owl
The owl irruption continues. As I write this Karla and I are watching a boreal owl right outside our kitchen window. When I took this photo last week a dozen chickadees started to dive bomb the boreal. The look the owl gave was either caused by the chickadees or it was trying to tell me to back off so it could get some sleep.
Great Gray Owl 002
This week over a dozen were sighted from Duluth to Grand Portage. We have seen Great Grays three times this week. This Great Gray was finding mice and voles in a field just a mile from our house. The owner of the field watched as it caught mice right in front of their house; not an experience that very many people get to see. I am jealous.
Great Gray Owl 005
Like I mentioned last week, it is the facial feathers that transmit the sounds back to the ears. One ear is higher than the other giving the owl the ability to use triangulation to locate the sound of a running mouse under the snow. The feathers act like a satellite disc giving the owl the ability to hear sounds that we couldn’t even think of hearing.
