Great Gray Owl
 
D

Due to larger than normal snow accumulation to the North, a few Great Gray Owl have found their way to Northern Utah. I’m told the last time this happened was in the ’80s.

Whenever a species moves beyond its normal range, people assume the bird must be starving. Research on Snowy Owl has shown this to not be the case. While lack of food is what motivates the bird to move further south, the root cause seems to be a very high survival rate for that species’ offspring the previous year. More birds mean they need to spread out more than usual and travel further to find food. The Snowy Owls that were studied were perfectly healthy.

This misconception and people trying to get better photos has lead to the hot topic of owl baiting. I have never baited, with two exceptions, backyard birds to my black oil sunflower feeder, and I have Bald Eagle shots taken when the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources dumped a truckload of carp in the wetlands to attract eagles for the public’s viewing pleasure. (The DNR got a lot of flack for doing this and has since stopped.) I also have a photo of a Harrier on a turkey that someone else put out one winter. I didn’t realize this until I got home and looked at the pictures. I do not bait raptors and I now believe the practice to be unethical and dangerous to the birds. A well written and researched blog article I read really opened my eyes to this issue and I now understand why so many people got upset when the DNR did the fish dump. Baiting in the U.S. can get you a fine, but it’s not illegal in Canada and is a much bigger problem there.

Great Gray Owl are amazing birds and I’ve really enjoyed watching and photographing this one. I would like to thank the property owners for giving me permission to go on their land which enabled me to get a few of these shots.

 Scroll down or click an image to open the gallery. I’ve included a few more short videos of this owl and some interesting facts about Great Gray Owl at the bottom of the page.

There are 2 comments

  1. Gillian

    Hi Mark,

    Thank you for linking my blog post from 4 years ago. It amazes me how, after all this time, people still think it worth sharing. I am encouraged that so many people are taking its message to heart.

    One person commented in another blog that mentioned mine (https://theafternoonbirder.com/owl-baiting/) that you can’t get good photos without baiting. This series just proved that person wrong. Your photos are truly excellent – well done! I particularly love the wing stretch. 🙂 These photos should be considered far more valuable for being taken honestly and ethically, without interfering with the owl or imposing your will on the owl. I really hope that posts like this get photographers to reconsider whether baiting is the only way to photograph them.

    Cheers,
    Gillian

    • mark@summerswildlife.com

      Thank you Gillian. Although I’ve never really baited, exceptions mentioned in my post, I didn’t have a strong opinion on the subject either way until I read your blog post. That was probably two years ago. Education is a powerful tool. The subject has gotten a lot of attention lately because of the Great Gray irruption.

      Regards,
      Mark Summers


Post a new comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.