Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa, Ile Bizard, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
February 5th, 2005. ABA Code (2).

Well, what can be said about the winter influx of northern owls in 2004/05? It was just incredible. Some 1700 Great Gray Owls were reported from Minnesota alone. On February 5th, we decided to travel north to Montreal to spend a few hours with these magnificent birds. Curiously, the winter influx never reached New Hampshire, not even the extreme north of the state, and we heard of only one report from Maine. Yet the numbers just north of the Canadian border in Quebec remained consistently high for weeks, with Ile Bizard near Montreal supporting some of the more accessible birds.

We made the round trip from Keene, NH in just one day and came home with some wonderful images and memories.