The Great Gray Owl map and the Snowy Owl / Northern Hawk Owl maps are up to date. You'll also notice there are no more color balloons indicating where each species of owls are located and instead there are new owl icons. Tony Hertzel created these new icons for the owl maps. You can view the maps here: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/
So far Snowy Owl reports have not increased lately and we are now at 50 Snowy Owl reported sightings since September 1, 2008. Great Gray Owl reports have increased in the last month and most of the new sightings are in northern Minnesota especially in the Sax-Zim Bog area. So far Minnesota has 32 reported sightings since Sept 1 2008. The most consistent areas to find Great Gray Owls are along the McDavitt Rd where there is a pair of Great Grays. From the south end of the bog habitat along McDavitt Rd to the first house on the your left (west) is where most of sightings have come from. The best hours to look of course is dusk and dawn and occasionally they are seen mid morning. Nichols Lake Rd (CR 232) is fairly consistent with most of the sightings is the area from 1.3 to 1.9 miles east of CR 7. Another Great Gray Owl along Township Rd & CR 83 has been seen a few times by Jason Mandich of Hibbing. No one has refound the Great Gray Owl 5 miles south of CR 133 on CR 47 and I suspect this owl is still around as the local bus driver has seen it numerous times during his morning route. Northern Hawk Owls are very numerous and sightings have greatly increased in the last few weeks. Minnesota as of today is sitting on 36 reported Northern Hawk Owls as of Sept 1, 2008. Sax Zim Bog has two consistent Northern Hawk Owls. A Hawk Owl near or at the intersection of CR 28 (Sax Rd) & CR 7. Look at the intersection or 1/5 mile south or north of the intersection. Sometimes the owl is seen 1/2 mile or less west of CR 7 on CR 28. There is also another Northern Hawk Owl north of CR 28 on the Admiral Rd (CR 788) the owl can be found about a 1/2 mile north of Cranberry Lane on the Admiral Rd. I have no reports of the Hawk Owl on CR 310 (Keenan DR) & CR 7. This owl sighting is approx. one mile north of CR 16 (Forbes) on CR 7. Duluth has only one Northern Hawk Owl and that is near the entrance to the Duluth Airport. The last report I got was from a Mohith Mususwamy of Iowa where he found the Northern Hawk along Airport Blvd near the National Guard Bldg on 12/31/2008. Also check along Airport Rd as there is good open habitat to locate this owl. There is also report of the owl near the entrance to the WLSSD landfill on the Rice Lake Rd. Mike Hendrickson Duluth, Minnesota Website: http://webpages.charter.net/mmhendrickson/ Blog: http://colderbythelakebirding.blogspot.com/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
