SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Friday, November 25, 2011

Great Gray Owls

The Great Gray Owl is an northern species that can appear south of its usual range in large, sometimes astounding numbers. The latter happened in Minnesota during the winter of 2004-2005. This was the most recent irruption of this species and the largest on record.
Over 10,000 Great Gray Owls were reported in Minnesota that winter. Thousands of people, birders and non-birders alike, from Minnesota, many other states, and some foreign countries went north to see these owls. Aitkin County was a particularly good place to find them.
One recalls seeing a large hay field there that held perhaps three dozen Great Grays one afternoon. The town road bordering one side of the field was lined with parked cars, people sitting on car hoods and in lawn chairs to watch the birds.
So many people it looked like the audience for a major local sporting event.

Air Date Thu, 20 Jan 2011