In the vast boreal forests of Alaska, I did quite a few years of research and banding on northern owls. These four species were the most common.


This is a young great gray owl that followed me around all one day, begging food. I was moose hunting, and his noise didn't help me find a moose that day. Despite their size, they eat mostly voles and other small mammals.



Great Horned Owls were common. They are about the ultimate predator, taking everything from voles and squirrels, to grouse and marten.



Here's a great horned owlet in a nest, a couple weeks from fledging.



A northern hawk owl. In migration in the early spring, my wife and I trapped and banded hundreds.



Most of my research efforts were on the boreal owl. What a classy little predator.



Hope you enjoy this week's selection.

Jack

They sure would blend in with the background. How did you trap them? As a kid we trapped an owl with a big mess of fishing line hanging on branches over a decoy home made rabbit cutout. Used them for crow hunting = now that was fun and exciting, lots of action.....jk

great pictures

They sure are special! Thanks for posting! The babies are so fluffy!

Great pics, thanks for sharing.

I started out many years ago using a bal-chatri trap. Found it was much more efficient just to use a live mouse for bait and a long-handled fish net (Copper River Sockeye Dip net) in front of the mouse. When the owls came in for the mouse, they had tunnel vision, and disregarded the net layed flat on the snow. At the last minute, tilt the net up so the owl flies into it. Worked like a charm.

Jack

That Hawk Owl looks Guilty of something

like he just got caught raiding

Excellent thread

I sure like hearing owls at night. Even in daytime, sometimes. Now that I've had my semi tame rabbits adopt me, I admit I watch owl activity with a bit more of a keen eye . So far, so good.

Great shots, Jack. As always.

BTW- what an adventure your new book was to enjoy. Really appreciated the traditions and thought perspectives of Russian life. I've always liked Russia, and its people. And those huge tigers. I kept wanting to see little maps of each chapter, so I'd have a better visual of the areas you focused on.

Now I'm gearing up to begin that wonderful book from your friend Nels , The Island Within . I've been saving this for the time needed to really read slow and appreciate each chapter . I've got a trip to AK coming up, so distractions abound preparing for my adventure . I think I can fit this book in at least for a little while , meantime. Think of all the remarkable conversations you've shared with Nels . I have often wished such times were somehow on video, to enjoy as you would your reading collections.

Great pics Gulo,I love owls.
We got the litlle boreal owls here as well as the greys and horned.
Probably a few others as well but those ones I see most,especially the greys.Some years the big greys get quite abundant.
Once in a blue moon a few white owls will show up.I think when the white owls come down it is indicative of a crash of their main prey species up north.

I'm surprised that Great Horned are up in the boreal forest, I thought they didn't go that far north.
Have some in the area I live that nest about 1/4 mile from the house in a stand of large Maple trees.

Glad to have them around and hear them at night calling.

and post 8000 goes to a good cause
As it just happened here a mob of Blue Jays were mocking a migrating Boreal owl in my back yard.
Years ago was working with salmon on Haida Gwaii and found a Saw Whet owl and was going down to BC provincial museum and later that day. The security staff said no donations on weekends. But luck would have it signing out I recognized a voice. The man I was taking it to was going in. It is a small world when stuff like that happens. The owls there are a sub-species of the Saw Whets so it was important to preserve.

I hear a lot of great horned owls around the house. Its a neat sound for sure.

Once I saw one hopping along the ground, working the tall weeds down by the creek. I though it was a raccoon at first.

Most owls do most of their hooting in the early spring during breeding. The great horned owls, on the other hand, hoot year-round as a maintenance call in their home ranges. We hear the maintenance call year-round.

Like you, I watched great horned owls in the tall grass along a slough bank along the Yukon River one time. Curious, I went ashore to try and see what the heck they were doing. Turns out, they were hopping through the grass, catching wood frogs, scarfing them up like popcorn. Very interesting diet and hunting technique.

Jack

Had a Great horned owl fly down and pick up a bat that had hit the surface of the lake we were fishing in.
was about 30 ft in front of our boat, something I have not forgotten for 40 years.

Have a pair of boreal owls near camp see them lots in the spring. Lots up north where I work they are along the roads eating frogs in the morning in the ditches.