[mou] owls,owls, owls and more owls

[Steve and Sherry Watson]

	Hello everybody,

Many of you may not believe this and well, to tell you the truth I'm
still having trouble believing it myself.  I spent the day birding with
two great people from Tennessee in search of sharp-tailed grouse and
black-billed magpie in Sax Zim which the last three days they'd spent
their looking hadn=92t produced.  But today was different and we watched
two magpies mob a northern hawk owl on McDavitts road and saw three
sharp-tailed grouse roosting in a tree.  But I'd have to say the best
part of the day was seeing 48 different owls 38 of which came in the Sax
Zim bog.  I feel terrible though as I don't have exact mileage for each
owl and am hoping this email was worth sending.  I want to assist in the
owl numbers and again say I feel bad because I couldn't get the mileage.
Anyhow 20 of the 38 owls in Sax Zim were northern hawk owls and 18 were
great grey owls.  We drove through the bog without doubling back on any
of the roads and therefore none of what we saw could have been the same
owls.  I have locations but not pin pointed exactly but I will list them
anyway.

The northern hawk owls were on:
7 hawk owls along county road 7 total.  2 hawk owls were between Sax
road and Arkola road on 7.  1 hawk owl along 7 head south from Kelsey
road to 133.  3 hawk owls north from Sax road before the Stony Lake road
on 7.  3 hawk owls along the stony lake road all on the power lines two
at the same time one on each side of the road and the last on a power
pole right at the corner where the lake comes into view.  1 hawk owl
down 557 north of the Stony Lake road.  2 hawk owls were along Arkola
road east of Owl Ave.  1 hawk owl on 29 heading north past the dead end
road 157 before the road turns east.  1 hawk owl down a couple miles on
Kelsey road.  1 hawk owl on 133 about a quarter mile down.  1 hawk owl
on Arkola road west of Owl Ave. a mile or two.  1 hawk owl on 83 and 1
other hawk owl down Admiral Road heading south.  2 other hawk owls were
along McDavitts road one on each end. =20

The 18 great gray owls in Sax Zim were:
3 down McDavitts road.  1 great gray at the dead end of 157 of 29.  1
great gray owl along Kelsey road before the intersection of 204.  2
great gray owls both in view at the same time on 133.  1 great gray owl
on a fence post along Aspen road south from Blue Spruce.  1 great gray
owl on Arkola road west of Owl Ave.  1 great gray along 83 heading north
right after turning off of Arkola.  1 great gray owl east on 83 and
another after turning back north.  Another great gray owl on 83 west of
McDavitts road.  3 great gray owls all within sight of each other on
three power poles right in a row along 7 north of Sax road.  2 great
gray owls near the end of the Stony Lake road both in sight of each
other. =20

The other ten great gray owls were outside of the Sax Zim Bog along
CR-16, three were in St. Louis County and seven were in Lake County but
I don=92t have mileage and am sorry for that.  I hope this post was
interesting and worth sending.  Good birding,

Josh Watson
Grand Marais           =20

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