[mou] Aitkin Co. owls

[John Green]

We had a successful owling expedition to Aitkin County on Thursday, March
17th, with a total of 50 Great Gray Owls and 1 Northern Hawk Owl.  In
addition, we saw three Great Gray Owls on the way from Duluth on Hwy 210
in Carlton County.

We traversed Co. Hwy 4 (Dam Lake St.) twice, first east to west from Hwy 
65 to Dam Lake at 4:45 to 5:15 pm, and then back, west to east from 5:20
to 5:55 pm, recording actual locations of the owls on each traverse.  This
gave a total of 22 non-duplicative GGOWs.  We saw four other GGOWs on Hwy
65 from the northern border of Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge to Co.
Hwy 4.  On the way home, from 6:00 to 6:30 pm, we counted six GGOWs on Co.
Hwy 13 from East Lake to Lawler; then 18 more on Co Hwy 16 from Lawler to
Tamarack.  The sky was clear the whole time and there was a beautiful
sunset at about 6:15.

The Northern Hawk Owl was at the Rice River on the Rice Lake NWR.  Other
raptors were two Red-tails and one Rough-leg in Aitkin County and a Bald
Ealge in Carlton County.

Jan and John Green