[mou] Record Number of Great Gray Owls in Aitkin County

[Cindy Butler]

How did you spend your honeymoon?

Kim Risen reporting from Cindy Butler's computer. This is my first post as
a newlywed! Cindy Butler and I were married last Friday evening so I can
now officially call Aitkin County home. Our first weekend as a married
couple was a little different than most honeymoon weekends, I'm sure. Cindy
spent Saturday at a quilting retreat and I spent the weekend guiding
birders around northern Minnesota. Even though we had no honeymoon
immediately following the wedding, the weekend was fun for both of us.
Cindy was the center of attention at her gathering, as new brides usually
are, and my clients from Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas and I enjoyed Boreal,
Snowy, Barred, Great Gray, and Northern Hawk Owls, Pine & Evening
Grosbeaks, Common & Hoary Redpolls, Northern Shrike, Black-backed
Woodpecker, Boreal Chickadee, Snow Bunting, Harlequin Duck, Spruce,
Sharp-tailed & Ruffed Grouse, and a spectacularly close flock of 370+
Bohemian Waxwings. Certainly a weekend of memorable events!=20

Spending our first weekend as newlyweds in different parts of the state is
not as bad as it sounds, though. Cindy was able to join me on two of the
three days I was guiding birders. It worked out well as we had an extra
pair of eyes in the car and Cindy and I got to spend more time together
(even if it was with friends from out of town).

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 19 was our first day alone since our wedding.
How did we decide to spend our first time alone together as man and wife?
By going birding, of course! Watching the numbers of owls being reported in
the Sax-Zim bog area decline while the numbers of owls we were seeing in
Northeastern Aitkin County increased we thought that, perhaps, the bulk of
these wintering Great Gray Owls may be moving south and west into our area.
We decided that an all day search that covered Northern Aitkin County would
be a good way to find out how many Great Grays were around and where they
were concentrated.

Our reason for this survey was due to the number of owls that we found in
just a short search about a week ago when Cindy and I had found 69 Great
Gray Owls in northern Aitkin County in only about five hours of birding.
Most of these were found in the expected areas north of Palisade (County
Roads 18 & 5 and Highway 169). Just this last Saturday, Elizabeth Bell
posted the results of a birding trip to Aitkin County that she and her
husband, Tom, along with John & Nancy Solodar and Steve & Jo Blanich
enjoyed. They had 76 Great Gray Owl sightings representing at least 62
different individuals and 13 Northern Hawk Owls while birding only six
hours. Again, the area that proved to be the best was the area north of
Palisade bounded by highway 169 on the west, County Road 5 on the east and
County Road 18 on the north.

We decided that we would make an all day survey of northern Aitkin County
and, after speaking with Michelle McDowell at the Rice Lake National
Wildlife Refuge we devised a route that would allow us to cover much of
northern Aitkin County. We began at our home in Balsam Township went south
as far as Lawler with side-trips both east and west of Kestrel Ave. Lawler
to Rice Lake NWR (where we confirmed routes and meeting times with
Michelle), north to highway 210, east to Tamarack and returned via side
roads. North from McGregor along the Simpson Road and out to Highway 65 via
County Road 6. Highway 65 north to Jacobson, highway 200 east to the county
line, then back to Hill City. West of Hill City to Highway 29, south on 29
to Swatara, east on County Road 7 to Haypoint--back on Highway 169, then
south to County Road 3, east to Palisade (where we ate lunch & met Michelle
& Jayme McDowell). County Road 10 SW from Palisade to 'the dump road', east
to County Road 1, continuing north when it changes to County Road 29 to
County Road 68. We continued east on CR 68 to Highway 169 then north on 169
to County Road 18. CR 18 was checked VERY carefully by scanning all open
areas with binoculars on foot or from the car to find those owls that were
beyond unassisted eye-sight from the road. CR 18 its entire length, Pietz's
Road to its end, and then County Road 5 back to Palisade. Our party
separated to cover different routes back home. Cindy and I covered Highway
232 back to Highway 65 (darkness prevented any scanning and we found only
one additional owl after leaving Palisade so we declared the survey over at
5:30 PM).

Michelle and Jayme covered Rice Lake NWR west to Aitkin, north on County
Road 1 to County Road 3 then east to Palisade. From that point we were
together in a single party as described above.

How successful were we? More than we could have possibly hoped! Cindy and I
had set an unofficial goal of trying to see 100 Great Gray Owls in Aitkin
County in a single day--a feat that has never been accomplished in
Minnesota. We decided that in order to see 100 individual owls our count
total had to be at 50 when we arrived at Palisade for lunch about 2:00 PM.
We arrived with 56 on our tally sheets so our hopes for a record total were
high. Even more so after Michelle & Jayme arrived with their total of 32
and we began to think that Warren Nelson's prediction of 150 Great Grays in
Aitkin County might prove to be true. We left the caf=E9 in Palisade at 2:45
PM and in the next 165 minutes we saw an absolutely incredible 118 Great
Gray Owls! This gave Cindy and I a personal total of 174 Great Gray Owls
seen in Aitkin County in a single day. This is the largest one day total of
Great Gray Owls ever recorded in Minnesota let alone a single county. The
additional owls found by Jayme & Michelle gave us our survey total of 203
Great Gray Owls in northern Aitkin County on January 19, 2005.

The totals for our survey break down as follows:

Great Gray Owls:
Kim & Cindy		- 174	(less seven birds that are probable duplicates observed
by Jayme & Michelle)
Jayme & Michelle		-   38	(less two birds that are probable duplicates
observed by Kim & Cindy PLUS 118 birds observed by our entire party
during the last 2.75 hours of the day.)

Northern Hawk Owls:
Kim & Cindy		- 15
Jayme & Michelle		-   3

Hourly breakdown of Kim & Cindy's Great Gray Owl sightings
8:00 - 9:00 AM	- 10=20
9:00 -10:00 AM	- 5
10:00 - 11:00 AM	- 19
11:00 - 11:59 AM	- 2
12 :00 - 1:00 PM	- 4
1:00 - 2:00 PM	- 17
2:00 - 3:00 PM	- 12
3:00 - 4:00 PM	- 48
4:00 - 5:00 PM	- 49
5:00 - 5:30 PM	- 8

Also seen were Barred Owl, Snow Bunting, Sharp-tailed & Ruffed Grouse, Pine
Grosbeak, Common Redpoll, and Northern Shrike.

As amazing as our total of 203 Great Gray Owls appears to be, it is even
more surprising when you consider:=20

1)	The area between our house and Tamarack yielded only a single Great Gray
during our survey. A hugely disappointing total as in the last few days
there has been from seven to ten birds present. Just this morning we had
one perched above our mailbox and Cindy's daughter counted 10 during her
drive to school.
2)	The huge area along Highway 65 from McGregor north to Jacobson, east on
200 to the county line, back west to Hill City, and then south to Swatara
that contains beautiful habitat, has had recent reports of 'dozens' of
Great Gray Owls but provided us with only THREE owls. This is, perhaps, due
to the fact that we covered this area in the 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM time
slot-mid-day is certainly not the optimum time to find Great Gray Owls.
3)	Finally, that Great Gray reports from locals continue at an amazing
pace. "Thirteen seen between home and town.", "Seven of those big owls were
along the road=85", and like reports are commonplace showing that numbers of
Great Gray Owls appear to be continuing to climb.=20

My highlight of the day? Well, I really can't choose just one. Perhaps the
times when we had thirteen, ten, or nine Great Gray Owls in sight at a
single moment. Perhaps that Great Gray Owl we watched plunge into the snow
during a sortie over an overgrown hayfield. His initial plunge wasn't
successful and it may have been unable to break through the crusty snow as
we watched it rise vertically in the air and plunge forcefully into the
snow again and again. Maybe it was listening to Michelle's exclamations
from the backseat each time she found another owl, and another, and
another=85 Or maybe the patience exhibited by Cindy as the three of us calle=
d
out Great Gray Owl sightings, milages, and locations faster than a person
could humanly write them down. I know I couldn't have done it nearly so=
 well.

I can't wait to try this again. Perhaps, by forming multiple parties to
survey the best areas at better times of the day, we could find=85? Do you
think that 300 is possible?

Kim & Cindy Risen
Tamarack
Aitkin County





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