Great Gray Owl

An unusual bird has been spotted in Durham, New Hampshire. The kind of bird that convinces birders to drive 5 or 6 hours, from Vermont, Massachusetts and all over New Hampshire, to come see it.


The Great Gray Owl is a large northern owl usually found far north of us in Canada. Several years ago, a group of Great Gray Owls was near Montreal, and birders were driving 5 hours from southern New Hampshire up to Quebec to see that group of owls.

There's a NH Audubon birding email list where people post birds they find, and we heard about the bird on that list.

Monday morning, we drove for 15 minutes to find the small trail head parking lot on some land protected by the Nature Conservancy. We realized we hadn't gathered good info about where the owl had last been seen....so we just headed down the most obvious trail - which lead to a wooden platform overlooking some water. No birders. No owl.

We re-traced our steps to the car, and suddenly heard a yell and saw a man running out of the woods to his car. He stopped long enough to tell us he had the owl, before grabbing professional camera gear and heading down a less noticeable trail into the woods.

We followed a short distance, and got our first look at the owl. It was perched about 15 feet off the ground right next to the trail. It was easy to see without binoculars....and with the binoculars I could easily see details of its feathers, its beak, its talons.

Great Gray Owls are also found in Europe and Asia. They hunt during the day - eating small mammals such as voles.


The owl didn't seem concerned about the small group of birders that gathered to look at it. In fact, it flew closer to us, perched on a broken topped tree about 10 feet (3 meters) off the ground, turned its back to us and intently peered down toward the ground.


Apparently, that is hunting behavior for this owl. It watches the ground waiting for movement, and then flies in for the kill.

It flew to another perch across the trail....and at that point I decided I was more dedicated to running than to birding - so I headed out for a nice 5 mile (8k) run down a beautiful winding dirt road. Not much traffic at all - except for birders arriving from Martha's Vineyard, Vermont, and Keene, NH.


Jim, the official Life Looms Large photographer for this outing, stayed with the owl.

A photographic note from Jim: Luckily, just before the owl lunged, I had set my camera's iso to 1000 in hopes of getting a clear shot of the owl flying off. I know iso 1000 sounds insane, but I was pleasantly surprised that a couple of the high iso pics came out reasonably clear. All of these were taken with a Canon 40D and a 100-400 L lens either handheld or with a monopod.

The gathered birders were able to watch it peer at the ground, fly down to the ground and then take off before it flew into conifers and was out of sight for a few hours. Like many northern owls, the Great Gray Owl hunts during the day. The behavior Jim watched is typical hunting behavior for this type of owl.

When I got back from my run, there was no sign of the owl, but there were about 20 birders walking around in the forest looking for it. We headed home when it started to drizzle....rain and cameras don't mix so well. But we did hear on the birding list that the owl was sighted again around lunchtime.


Birders were speculating that the owl may have wintered in this area, and is just about finished molting. After it molts, they were guessing that it would head north again. Great Gray Owls are very elusive birds. Great Grays were discovered in America by Europeans before they realized that Great Gray Owls also were present in Europe.


You may notice that the owl's head is asymmetrical. Many owls have an adaption to improve their audio depth perception. Their ears are on different levels on the sides of their head to improve their depth perception.

The facial disk on an owl is indeed to direct sound to their ears. Even though a Great Gray Owl hunts during the day, in winter its prey is often under a layer of snow. Acute hearing is important. An owl's eyes take up approximately 50% of its head. (In a human head, that would mean that each eye would be the size of a baseball.) Owls eyes cannot move in their sockets, but owls have twice as many neck vertebrae as humans so that they can turn their heads almost 270 degrees in either direction.

The Great Gray Owl is a large owl - weighing approximately 3-4 lbs (1.3 - 1.8 kilos), like a Snowy Owl. It may appear a bit larger because of the way the fluffy feathers stick up on its head.


It is always thrilling to see an owl. I even love just hearing them at night. We were very lucky to be able to see this owl. It is a very spectacular bird!!