I had a request for showing skin/hair problems of wolves and other furbearers. I think this would make an excellent Photo Phriday, but I've not got decent photos of mange, allopecia, follicular displasia, etc. For this week, I'll go back to a standby, the boreal owl. I worked for many years in Alaska on these owls. They seem to be rather rare in the Lower 48, but were very common inhabitants in Interior Alaska. This time of year I was always very busy trying to figure them out.


The boreal owl is a small owl (a little bigger than a robin), and as the name suggests, they live in northern areas.




Here's mom sitting on a clutch, surrounded by food she will feed to the owlets. You can see, the most common prey item is northern red-backed voles.



At fledging the young look quite different from the adults, but within a month of hatching, look more like the adults.



The ear openings on the skulls are asymmetrical, giving the owls the ability to better pinpoint their prey. The right ear opening is high on the skull, while the left is lower. All owls have this asymmetry.



Another thing owls have is a leading edge fringe on their wings. This eliminates all noise of flight, and allows them to better "sneak" on their prey. Engineers are adopting this "fringe" on wind turbines to quiet them down.

many marten trappers have encounters with this owl.
Some of the ones that I have handled have a very interesting louse on them as well as many of the fleas that have jumped their dead host( upcoming in a publication co-authored)
Jim Duncan our retired Wildlife Director ran 400 boxes for them in southern Manitoba

Very interesting Gulo!

What cute little owls. That fuzzy gray young one would make a great model for stuffed soft toys for kids. Easy to make, it seems. Just find the right soft fluffy material for the down.

Thank you for sharing, Jack.

We have the Pygmy’s here, for the small variety. Well, unless you tell me different, Jack. They are super cool to see. I have only seen them while hunting deer in the old growth.

VG’s in the world of nature?

Basically, Mike, yeah. In nature, I'm not sure it increases lift and lets them land and take off at slower speeds though.

Very nice.Thanks for sharing.

There is something like 9 owls in Ohio and only one of them (Great Horned) goes whooo whooo which I thought was interesting. All the other ones sounded annoying and I don't think you'd want them around the house. lol.

In Fairbanks, we lived on the edge of town. Put up a boreal owl box just outside our bedroom window. They've got a neat series of hoots. We were happy to have a male adopt the box. About a month later, we were not so sure it was such a great idea...

Looking the Bathroom window

Jack, you should be able to find some close to Tendoy. I have heard them in the mountains around Leadore in the 80's and 90's when i spent considerable time there. We had many in the Centennial Range, Beaverhead Range and the west slope of the Tetons. The male courtship/ territorial call has a similar cadence and tone to that of a common snipe.

This is a GOOD thread .