All, I will post much more precise locations tomorrow, as I have them all stored in the DVD Nav system of my new car, but today was absolutely amazing for Owls. A somewhat brief summary follows:
Arrived in the Cotton area around 7:45am. Between mile markers 33 and 35, there were 3 Great Grey Owls hunting. Absolutely marvelous start to the day. Northern Hawk Owls were seen at Mile Marker 42 and 43. Another Northern Hawk Owl was found at 3.7mi S of 27 on Admiral Rd. Rough Legged Hawks and Northern Harriers were plentiful in the bog as well. Northern Shrike was seen right at Stone Lake Rd, and a Northern Hawk Owl was 0.2 mi S of Stone Lake Rd. Struck out on McDavitt except for a Rough-legged and Northern Harrier. Then around 11:30am I decided to head up to Forest Rd 11/MN 16. Absolutely unbelievable. After about 10 or 12 miles or some such, I ran into my first Great Greys, two of them. Its was unbelievable. One was on the southern side of the road in a low tree, so I stopped to photograph it (very cooperative and gorgeous as it sat there napping), then as I looked to my left, another Great Grey flew in and landed on a tree right near me. So I photographed it as it perched there, and then in two other low trees. I couldn't believe it, by noon i'd already seen 5 Great Greys. Keep in mind i've never had much luck with them, and had seen 2 in my life up until today (1 last weekend from a distance, and 1 real well last March in Aitkin Cty). So I continue along the road and in another few miles, another Great Grey and it was this way all along Forest Rd 11. I took St Louis Cty 44 and found 2 Great Grey's along it, one of them perched on the sign at Petrel Creek. He actually flew right over the hood of my car as I was parked on the road and landed on the sign less than 6 feet from me. I was too close to even take full body shots so I settled for closeup head shots :) Back onto Forest Rd 11 and I found more Great Greys along the way. I turned around about a mile after the Lake Cty Line and this is when incredible things happened. Within 100 yards of Hall Rd (I forget the mileages etc, but i'll post exact details tomorrow) there were 3 Great Greys. I saw one on a small tree, took a few shots of it, and then just another 50 feet ahead another was on a power pole. Just another 100 feet ahead past Hall Rd yet a 3rd Great Grey was on a power pole. Unbelievable. By this time it was 3:30pm and I started to head back at a greater pace. Along the way I saw 4 or 5 more Great Greys and 2 Northern Hawk Owls. I also found a Great Grey that was dead, apparently a road kill, though it didn't look real beat up. Maybe a glancing blow. It was about .75mi to 1mi east of the Whiteface River on Forest Rd 11 on the right shoulder. I didn't pick it up or take it with me because I didn't have anything to put it in and didn't really know what to do with it. I called the RBA to let them know, and am posting it here in case someone such as Peder or Jim Lind wants to pick it up tonight or tomorrow morning. It looked in pretty reasonable condition. It must have died between 2pm and 4:15pm because it wasn't there when I passed by that spot the first time. I'll be posting images that I took sometime in the next day or so. Cheers, Chris
