This is a continuation of the previous Saturday Stories #5. In that story a young woman from the southern part of our province had called me about doing an owl survey together. She helped out with this owl survey in the south and knew I did the survey here in the north. Since she and her family were up here camping she had called and wanted to look for owls with me, staying out all night.

We had just met a pair of wolves, which were much too close but we made it back to my car without any problems. The wolves were just curious about us with me calling for owls. We drove off to another spot which was next to a beautiful lake. It was nearly a full moon that night and was shining on the lake so nicely.

Since I have no pictures from that outing, I will share some of my winter bird friends. This is Baxter the Blue Jay.

The lake was totally calm. There was a pair of common loons swimming on the lake. Most every lake up here has loons nesting on them. Common loons are a large water bird that, in most of their range, are no longer common. My owl calling got them excited and began their, what is often considered mournful, calls. I enjoy the wild call of loons and Jenny really enjoyed it too.

It was something she did not get to experience down where she lived, so she just wanted to sit and listen to them. I did not mind that either, so we sat and enjoyed the loons and the moon shining on the water. It truly was a beautiful scene. As we were sitting along the shore, suddenly there was a rustling in the willows beside Jenny. She jumped very quickly onto me, nearly knocking me right over, holding on tightly.

This is a female Hairy Woodpecker.

As we watched, a beaver swam out away from shore with his willow branches and sat there munching on the leaves. Sounded like he was eating a salad, which really he was doing. It was the first time Jenny had seen a beaver in the wild like that, so we sat quietly and watched while he ate. After he finished eating, it stopped and just stared our way. Guess it just noticed we were there watching.

So, down under the water he went, but did not slap it’s tail as they sometimes do. It was now beginning to get daylight so we headed off to another location where I often saw Great Gray Owls in the evening and also in the early morning hours. We arrived about 5am and I began calling for them.

Here we have a Ruffed Grouse.

It was 15 minutes and I was about to give up when a beautiful Great Gray owl came and landed about 20 feet from us. The sun was shining on it so nicely and it stayed there quite a while too. Before it left a second one came along but did not come as close.

Still, it was nice to see two of them. It was a great way to end our time out looking for owls. Jenny was very excited to see two more of the Great Gray owls. I then took her back to her campsite and she asked to go out again. We did so, but that is for another time. Have a great day everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2024 Steve McLeod.