The great grey owl, the largest owl in North America whose round, flat face, bright yellow eyes and silent flight conveys an unworldly appearance, touched down in Spokane County.<\/p>\n
And it isn\u2019t normally here.<\/p>\n
Typically found in the very cold and snowy boreal forests of Alaska and Canada, \u201cit is rare to see them in Washington state, particularly in areas like Spokane County,\u201d said conservation biologist Emilie Kohler of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear when the great grey was first spotted among a mix of trees and open meadows in Spokane County. But when Nancy Taylor-Babcock of Post Falls learned of its appearance a few days after Christmas, \u201cI knew I had to see that owl,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A wildlife photographer with a soft spot for owls, Taylor-Babcock wept the first time she saw a great-horned owl, she recalled. So when, on Jan. 2, she aimed her telephoto lens at the visiting great grey perched on a ponderosa pine snag, \u201cI kept telling myself to breathe, slow and steady,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As Taylor-Babcock snapped photographs from about 30 yards away, the great grey fixed its gaze at her, she recalled. Occasionally, though, it would swivel its head as if scanning the ground nearby.<\/p>\n
It was scanning, alright, but not with its eyes. Most likely, it was listening for scurrying prey in a thicket of dried grass. Great greys, like barn owls and saw-whets, rely mostly on sound to hunt, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Its circular, flat face acts like a satellite dish, gathering sound waves and then channeling them to the owl\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the owl suddenly launched from its perch and glided silently before swooping down to snatch a vole in its talons. \u201cI didn\u2019t hear a single sound,\u201d Taylor-Babcock said.<\/p>\n
How is a tall bird with a 5-foot wingspan capable of hushed flight? Great greys possess a thick, velvety coating on their flight feathers and comb-like serrations on their wing edges, according to the Cornell lab website. These special adaptations allow \u201csilent flight that reduce wing noise to almost nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The small numbers that live here are found in the Okanogan Highlands, the Blue Mountains and parts of the Cascade Range, Kohler explained \u2013 all remote, high-elevation areas with no humans nearby.<\/p>\n
So why would one show up in Spokane County, home to more than a half-million people?<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably to gain better access to voles, its main food source,\u201d according to great-grey owl expert Katherine Gura, a research scientist at Colorado State University and author of \u201cPhantom of the North: Great Grey Owls of the Tetons and Yellowstone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judging by the color and pattern of our owl visitor\u2019s wing tips, the bird is an adult, Gura said. It may have ventured from its remote highland range in Washington in search of hunting grounds not covered with a layer of thick ice, she explained.<\/p>\n
December was unusually rainy in Washington, and a number of higher locations received heavy rain, followed by snow and then more rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese rain-on-snow conditions probably led to severe ice crust events\u201d in the owl\u2019s native habitat, she explained<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat greys are adept at penetrating snow \u2013 even deep snow \u2013 to capture voles, but if the snow is covered with a hard ice crust, they can\u2019t break through the surface to reach the prey,\u201d Gura said. What\u2019s more, sometimes they get injured or stuck after striking a thick icy surface, she added.<\/p>\n
Our great grey visitor hasn\u2019t been seen in a few days. It may have returned to its home to see if hunting conditions improved, Gura explained. Or it might have moved to another part of Spokane County to evade an influx of human onlookers as word of its presence spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people I saw were quiet, respectful and kept their distance,\u201d said Taylor-Babcock, whose photographs appear in today\u2019s column.<\/p>\n
A good thing, too, since human-caused noise and activity (such as getting too close) can rattle great greys, disrupting their ability to hunt and rest, Gura said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen great grays are seen outside their native range, people tend to perceive them as having a calm demeanor because they don\u2019t flush like great-horned owls,\u201d she explained. \u201cIn reality, they\u2019re putting up with people because they need to access food. This doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible the great grey owl will reappear before returning to its native home to see if hunting conditions have improved. Should that happen, we\u2019d be wise to heed Gura\u2019s advice: Spot the owl. Respect the owl.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The great grey owl, the largest owl in North America whose round, flat face, bright yellow eyes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-402060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}