I received a call this morning that there was a possible gyrfalcon in northern Itasca County. When I went there to check it out, the bird turned out to be a snowy owl. It was perched on a bridge guard rail on Lost 40 Loop Rd north of Dora Lake, off of CR 26. The bridge is about 1/2 mile south of CR 31. The area is basically a creek cutting through the woods...not what I think of as snowy owl habitat. The bird has been there for at least 4 days. The person I spoke to about it said he saw it dive under the bridge and come up with a wet head. I'm not sure what it could be eating there. It was interesting to see a snowy owl with a green backdrop--quite a sight in June.
Based on this odd behavior, it might be suggested that I saw an albino barred, great gray, or great horned owl, but this bird had all of the marks of a snowy...yellow eyes, slight dark markings on top of head, "moustache" of fluffy feathers around bill, etc. I also saw a black-billed magpie on CR 31, maybe a mile or so east of the Lost 40 Loop. Shawn Conrad Bovey
