[mou] Territorial behavior exhibited by Great Gray Owl Pine County

[Laura Erickson]

A couple of weeks ago I watched one Great Gray Owl attack another in the 
bog, along Highway 7.  The attacking bird flew directly at the other, which 
flew up and the two seemed to be grabbing air rather than each other, and 
then the attacking bird took over the perch where the first had been, at 
the top of a large shrub, and the attacked bird dropped to a lower branch, 
and crouched and pulled its head back to look up and eye the other.  It had 
its beak open part of the time, but I was much too far away to hear any 
bill snapping or other vocalizations.  They were far enough from the road 
that I felt comfortable watching them, but after 10 minutes they still 
hadn't moved from that position and it was getting a bit darker so I moved 
on before I saw what happened next.

Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN


Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson