On our way north to Angora in St. Louis County to visit relatives, my family and I got a 
chance to check out Aitkin Co. Rd. 18 this morning to see if we could find some of the 
reported Great Gray Owls.  With a fresh snow and overcast skies, the owls were very 
abundant and actively moving and hunting.  We found 5 Great Gray Owls.  If that weren't 
exciting enough, we also turned up our lifer Northern Hawk Owl.  Here are the locations of 
the owls:


GGOW 1: 2.2 miles east of 169 along the road

GGOW 2: 3.4 (about) miles east of 169 hunting over a large open area with an unplowed 
driveway on the south side of 18.

GGOW 3: About 0.1 miles east of GGOW 2 along the road

GGOW 4: Perched at the top of a very tall pine inside Hebron Cemetery.  It flew and landed 
on the flagpole and then later out to the road.  It was also seen later on the cemetery's 
sign.

GGOW 5: Immediately east of the cemetery perched on top of a small pine - quite comical! 

NHOW: Perched on a wire on the north side of 18 along the Willowsippi WMA near the 
junction of 18 and Nature Ave.  We got incredible looks and photos of this bird before it flew 
north across the boggy/meadow area where it landed in a stand of dead spruce several 
hundred yards to the north.

Other birds of note included a Northern Shrike near 169 and what could have been a second 
NHOW flying (not sure).

We have loads of great photos of all the birds which will be on my blog and birding site in a 
few days after we get home to Willmar.

http://www.aboywhocriedheron.com
http://birdingacrossamerica.com

Good Birding!
Josh Wallestad

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