[mou] yellow-billed loon

[Alt, Mark]

Again, if observing any owl that may be feeding, please stay as far back
as possible and try to be silent. Boreal Owls are known to hunt an area
actively about 50 feet in all directions, so if you stay back 75 feet or
more, you likely would not be impeding its chances of feeding. They may
look as if they are resting, yet according to Steve Wilson, Wildlife
Specialist with the MN DNR, if these bird are out in the open during the
day, they are likely starving and have to hunt during the day to
survive. You must be very quiet, for any sound in the range of rustling
movements of voles is likely to interfere with the owls prey detection.
Bring a scope and help others to see it that way, from a distance, maybe
these birds can survive both the winter and us.=20

Mark Alt=20
MOU President
mark.alt@bestbuy.com
C/O J. F. Bell Museum of Natural History
University of Minnesota
10 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0104
MOU.mn.org



-----Original Message-----
From: mou-net-admin@cbs.umn.edu [mailto:mou-net-admin@cbs.umn.edu] On
Behalf Of Steve and Sherry Watson
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 3:54 PM
To: mou-net@cbs.umn.edu
Subject: [mou] yellow-billed loon

Hello all,

As you probably all know myself along with several others were not able
to re-locate the loon yesterday.  The harlequins were both still their
and we had wonderful views of a roosting boreal owl in the vicinity but
didn't see the loon, even around 2:00 or 3:00 P.M. after Superior calmed
almost glass still we weren't able to locate it.  I suppose since it had
been around since Tuesday that it could very well still be around and it
could have moved a little way's up or down the shore and could have been
way out on the horizon beyond vision.  The boreal owl was roosting on
the far end of the trail.  If you hike the trail over to where you can
view Burlington bay off a little bluff you can see the trail continues
down along the bay towards the town of Two Harbors.  At this spot there
is another trail intersecting this heading back towards the lighthouse,
the boreal owl was roosting about 30 yards from the section of the trail
off the little bluff viewing Burlington Bay.  It was in a cedar tree
just off the trail on the left side on about the only wide open branch
available.  It was fun watching it trying to sleep as it began snowing
as the snow would pile up on top of its head like a hat and every so
often it would have to shake it off.  That was about the only really
exciting part for the day and made driving all the way down to look for
the loon worth it even though we didn't see the loon.  Good birding to
all,

Josh Watson
Grand Marais=20

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