All told, I've put in 13 years trying to understand boreal owls. They are a common denizen of interior Alaska, but are relatively rare in the lower-48 (a few in Colo. and in Minn.) I usually worked with more than 100 nesting pairs per year. On my nightly listening posts, I would also stare incessantly at the aurora borealis.



Usually, the adult female would depart the nest box, but would perch within 5 feet of me.





Their ears are offset greatly to make their hearing better to pinpoint exactly where to strike. Notice the ear opening low on left side, high on right.





This is a photo of an adult female (there are only 2 sexes) showing the brood patch and zygodactyl toe placement.





The "ruffles" on the leading edges on the wing feathers are to deaden the sound, making it easier to sneak up on prey. Engineers are using this technology to quiet-down wind generators.





The recently-fledged birds look a bit different.

What a wonderful way to spend a night outside. Listening to the owls and enjoying the lights. So many haven't done this . I am glad you have .

Thank you for such nice photos and stories, Jack.

Always love these posts, thanks for posting these pics.

Interesting
Thanks for posting

Owls are all very cool

Awesome post

Very interesting as always,thank's for sharing.

One owl that many northern trapper encounter on their marten lines. One of the first to take to the marten nest boxes placed up.
Slight scratching on the side of the nest box trees get them to defend the hole of the boxes.
We see dispersal after 6 inches of snow mid Nov till mid Feb when they start going back into the boreal forest from the aspen/parkland.
Some very interesting ecto parasites they carry.

This was a big eruption year in Northern Minnesota and some even showed up in North Dakota. Been 6-7 years since last big migration came that far South.

Just talked to a trapper from the top of Manitoba on 53rd // (750km form boarder) who is over to the Ontario boarder and his marten harvest was only 10% and there were no owls around this fall/winter. Small mammal crash for sure.

There are reports from trappers in AK who have experienced the same this season. No catches, or very few. From longlines that usually catch a decent amount of wuffs, marten, lynx, wolverine. The winters there, snow, thaw, freeze to solid ice, snow, thaw again, have surely had an obvious decline in small mammal population that affected the predator count.

Unlike their Eurasian counterparts,. the voles don't cycle ("Cycle" means up and downs are predictible) in North America. I believe the lows in the populations are caused by chinooks that occur Jan, Feb and Mar and it kills most small mammals because they get wet in their subnivean tunnels,then when it cool off again, thet die. Really affects marten and boreal owls.

Nice pictures and interesting.

There is some good coverage of the freezing rain and what it does in the taiga / barren ground on the utube of True North living as they got a freezing rain in December2024.

I have not seen.the word zygodactyl in.print for over 40 years and I don't know that I've ever heard it spoken. It took me a few seconds to remember it meant birds that have 2 toes pointing forward and 2 back, to better grip a perch. Beautiful photos and interesting details as always.

Keith

Fascinating as always Jack thank you for sharing with us these posts are always a welcome addition to learn more about our natural world we all enjoy !

Thanks for posting Jack, never knew the differant postions on ear canals. Is this feature on all owls?

Zygodactyl. I learned something today.