This afternoon, after an unsuccessful attempt to see the Gyrfalcon west of Hastings, we headed for the airport. We made one trip on Cargo Rd in and back from the turnaround, stopping each time at the places which had been mentioned in previous posts - no birds and only two birders, also skunked. When we got to Longfellow, we decided that since we were there, may as well try another swing through. No luck at the UPS lot, but as soon as we turned around the back corner of the glycol processing facility, we had no problem spotting a Snowy on the fence by the runway, this was about 3:45pm. We watched it for awhile, got out the scope and tried to take pictures. It had the dark markings described in previous posts and looked like the ones on the MOU site and Terry Brashear's.
Then began the part when we wished Mark Alt was there with his video camera. The bird started moving around flying from post to post and going down once or twice. We spotted some movement along the fence, and eventually figured out what we were seeing was the top of rabbit ears. Then the owl started seriously making passes at it, but its movement was impeded by the fence which the rabbit hung close to. Watched this for a few minutes, then the rabbit (when it got in the open we could see that it was a huge jackrabbit) took off fast along the fence with the owl trailing above it. We got in the car and followed them, eventually to the start of the second tunnel. There we had a ringside seat as the rabbit got to the junction of the fence and the tunnel structure. The owl would make passes at it and as soon as it got close the rabbit would duck through a hole under the fence and the owl would have to sweep up abruptly and light on the fence top. We tried to take some pictures. Three most interesting scenes were the owl looking at the rabbit slightly behind it by lifting a wing and peeping "under its shoulder" at it; a vertical with the owl atop the last fence post directly above the rabbit standing under the fence in the hole; and when once the owl landed on the ground just before the fence instead of sweeping up the rabbit turned around after ducking through and they were facing each other no more than a yard apart. We watched them until almost 4:30pm. My husband just emailed me pictures of the last two scenes. Not calendar (or Cahlender) quality, but you can clearly see the participants. He's still reviewing all that he took. Anyone who wants to see the pictures, email me directly. Erika Sitz Ramsey, north Anoka County
