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I refound the Northern Hawk Owl on Hwy 46 Just East of Kerrick. It is recignizable as an individual as it has abnormaly striking facial disk black marking and vertical streaks that transect its side of its breast. We were Owl censusing and we drove up, did not see it, so we got out and scoped to the north, where a Raven sat atopa tamarack stub. I caught in peripheral vision some movement from the deep ditch 6 feet behind where we stood on the road. This is an area of deep grases and willow scrub, with sparse tamarack stubs every 25 feet or so. I looked closer to see a Northern Hawk Owl mantling, covering its kill with flapping wings, and glaring at me with its head cocked, peering up over the road's edge. I mumbled unintelligably, waved my arms, and pointed. My cohorts, Al Nelson and Steve Novatney, turned to see teh NHOW fly with its prey to teh top of a willow clump 20 feet way and start dressing out the Vole it had in its clutches. It then flew up to a dead snag and proceeded to eat, now 60 feet away. It only had about 5 seconds of peace before it was descended on by a flock of Pine Siskins! 3 or 4 of the 20+ siskins struck the bird from above and bounced up into the air to turn and teh NHOW would have non of it, flying quickly downward and away to teh South. We did not see if the Siskins gave chase, but they did not stay around. WE saw this and a Bared Owl for all of our efforts in Pine County this weeeknd. There have been Great Greys seen by 4 people I have talked with, yet they are not abundant yet. It appeared to me that Pine County has many large tracts of vole habitat, not like Saz-Zim, where much of the best vole habitat is visible from the road. We shall see. At this point it si evident that GGOW are in teh area of Pine County but not yet abundant. This is the saem NHOW that has beend seen for the past 3 weeks, still maitnaining the same feeding territory. I seemed very well-fed, large and robust and very active. This is the secind tiem I have found this bird, and again am struck by the fact that it is not in conspicuous perch positiions very often, and we had to stop right where it was to actually see it. Good news for Pine County CBC, other birds seen: *Bohemian Waxwings - flock of 60 north of Willow River on Hwy 61 at intersection of Dago Lake Road, east of the road in Aspens. *4 sightings of Red Crossbills, including 1 flock of 12 Est of Kerrick 4 miles on hwy 46. *3 flocks of Snow Buntings *2 flocks of Pine Siskins *1 small group of 3 American Goldfinches *3 flocks of Common Redpolls *1 Northern Rough-legged Hawk; Light adult male, near Hawk Owl site *5 Northern Shrikes Missing were Purple Finches, Grosbeaks, no Pines or Evenings sighted. --NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_5561_1102882403_0 Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <html><body> <DIV>I refound the Northern Hawk Owl on Hwy 46 Just East of Kerrick. It is recignizable as an individual as it has abnormaly striking facial disk black marking and vertical streaks that transect its side of its breast. We were Owl censusing and we drove up, did not see it, so we got out and scoped to the north, where a Raven sat atopa tamarack stub. I caught in peripheral vision some movement from the deep ditch 6 feet behind where we stood on the road. This is an area of deep grases and willow scrub, with sparse tamarack stubs every 25 feet or so. I looked closer to see a Northern Hawk Owl mantling, covering its kill with flapping wings, and glaring at me with its head cocked, peering up over the road's edge. I mumbled unintelligably, waved my arms, and pointed. My cohorts, Al Nelson and Steve Novatney, turned to see teh NHOW fly with its prey to teh top of a willow clump 20 feet way and start dressing out the Vole it had i n its clutches. It then flew up to a dead snag and proceeded to eat, now 60 feet away. It only had about 5 seconds of peace before it was descended on by a flock of Pine Siskins! 3 or 4 of the 20+ siskins struck the bird from above and bounced up into the air to turn and teh NHOW would have non of it, flying quickly downward and away to teh South. We did not see if the Siskins gave chase, but they did not stay around. WE saw this and a Bared Owl for all of our efforts in Pine County this weeeknd. There have been Great Greys seen by 4 people I have talked with, yet they are not abundant yet. It appeared to me that Pine County has many large tracts of vole habitat, not like Saz-Zim, where much of the best vole habitat is visible from the road. We shall see. At this point it si evident that GGOW are in teh area of Pine County but not yet abundant. This is the saem NHOW that has beend seen for the past 3 weeks, still maitnain ing the same feeding territory. I seemed very well-fed, large and robust and very active. This is the secind tiem I have found this bird, and again am struck by the fact that it is not in conspicuous perch positiions very often, and we had to stop right where it was to actually see it. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good news for Pine County CBC, other birds seen:</DIV> <DIV>*Bohemian Waxwings - flock of 60 north of Willow River on Hwy 61 at intersection of Dago Lake Road, east of the road in Aspens.</DIV> <DIV>*4 sightings of Red Crossbills, including 1 flock of 12 Est of Kerrick 4 miles on hwy 46.</DIV> <DIV>*3 flocks of Snow Buntings</DIV> <DIV>*2 flocks of Pine Siskins</DIV> <DIV>*1 small group of 3 American Goldfinches</DIV> <DIV>*3 flocks of Common Redpolls</DIV> <DIV>*1 Northern Rough-legged Hawk; Light adult male, near Hawk Owl site</DIV> <DIV>*5 Northern Shrikes</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Missing were Purple Finches, Grosbeaks, no Pines or Evenings sighted.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></body></html> --NextPart_Webmail_9m3u9jl4l_5561_1102882403_0--
