A couple of weeks ago I watched one Great Gray Owl attack another in the bog, along Highway 7. The attacking bird flew directly at the other, which flew up and the two seemed to be grabbing air rather than each other, and then the attacking bird took over the perch where the first had been, at the top of a large shrub, and the attacked bird dropped to a lower branch, and crouched and pulled its head back to look up and eye the other. It had its beak open part of the time, but I was much too far away to hear any bill snapping or other vocalizations. They were far enough from the road that I felt comfortable watching them, but after 10 minutes they still hadn't moved from that position and it was getting a bit darker so I moved on before I saw what happened next.
Laura Erickson Duluth, MN Producer, "For the Birds" radio program <http://www.lauraerickson.com/> There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson
