[mou] owls as individuals

[Chris Fagyal]

Wonderful post Steve.  

I agree it is quite hard to come to good conclusions after a short
time.  My Thanksgiving trip up north (hopefully just 1 of many I plan to
make over the coming months) had many of the same features as your
described trip.  I exclusively stayed in my car to shoot however, just
as a personal preference and in deference to the owls.  I did notice
distinct personalities, but in most all cases, almost every Owl I saw
seemed indifferent if not oblivious to me, especially after I
parked/turned the car off.  Generally I'd get a passing glance, and
often times the owl would be hunting/looking down or around and not even
facing me.  So i'd just patiently observe this wonderful creature until
it happened to glance around in my direction.  Often times I had owls
fly right over my vehicle, or fly closer to me even.  Once while
observing one owl, a second one flew in on the opposite side of the road
and perched on a small spruce tree that was close by.  It was just
amazing to watch these creatures.  Most of the owls I saw weren't
actually hunting, but rather napping or just looking around.  I observed
a few hunting, but no successes that I could notice.   Those hunting I
tended to leave rather quickly so as to not disturb them, and I didn't
stay with any owl at all that I observed past 4pm or so, as it was
getting dark and I knew that most every Great Grey at that time was
definitely hunting so I just waypointed the locations of these birds in
my navigation system as I passed by.

The first Owl I saw early in the morning along Hwy53 going up towards
Cotton was actually sitting in the ditch on the ground.  It startled me
at first because I wasn't expecting to pass a Great Grey Owl while
driving along 53, and certainly not see one sitting in the grasses.  It
must have just dove after a vole/mouse before I drove past.  

I certainly look forward to more encounters and more trips up north.

Cheers,


Chris Fagyal
Senior Software Engineer
United Defense, L.P. ASD
Fridley, MN 
(763) 572-5320
chris.fagyal@udlp.com

>>> Steve Foss <stfcatfish@yahoo.com> 11/28/2004 19:27:17 PM >>>
After spending two days over the Thanksgiving holiday
observing and shooting (with the camera, of course) great
gray and northern hawk owls in the Lake County and Sax/Zim
area and points south, it seems clear that individual birds
respond differently to similar stimuli.

While I did much of my shooting from inside the vehicle (as
close to owls as 10 feet away), I also went out on foot
several times. 

Some owls took off as soon as the vehicle slowed. Some of
those flew to perches a short distance away and continued
to hunt with intensity, but others kept on going out of
sight. And some stayed put. Perhaps that's related to the
amount of stress each individual bird is under, but perhaps
not. Forming conclusions after so few hours of study is a
dicey business. Some birds didn't seem at all bothered that
I was near, and they hunted with what seemed to be no
distraction. Those birds I felt comfortable staying with
for as long as 20 minutes each. There were nine of those,
and each of them scored on mice/voles while I was watching.
In some cases, I was sitting on the sloping ditch outside
the vehicle and fairly close to the birds.

I did notice that owls with fresh catches tended to fly
away immediately and out of sight of the vehicle. 

To be close to these owls has been my great pleasure. To
assess each situation as it comes, to weigh one's
impression of whether being in proximity to the individual
bird is adding to its stress, to care more for the bird
than for the photo and withdraw at signs of agitation —
these are lessons in humility.

See you out there, and good owling,

Steve


		
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