Another Rainy Day

Well, here I am living the dream. I have a relatively clean home (thank you Ritzy Clean-if you work full time and would rather spend your few days off a week not worrying about mopping the floors, dusting or scrubbing counters get a house cleaner they're not as expensive as you think).

Anyway, I'm living the dream: rainy day, nice autumn scented candle, big cup of coffee and writing away. I turn in the calendar tomorrow so today I'm home getting the last few details together.

Boy, northern owl species reports are pouring in. There's even been a snowy owl reported already. I'm supposed to go hand out with a friend this weekend but I'm thinking of calling a "birding emergency" and heading north. If anyone has been thinking I might come to Minnesota for owls this winter, I would turn that into a definite plan. Here's an expert from one of the weekly Duluth Rare Bird Alert yesterday:

We may be at the beginning of a large irruption of northern owls. Steve
and Diane Millard found 7 NORTHERN HAWK OWLS in the Sax-Zim area on
Monday and Tuesday, including several birds along Cty Rd 7 north of 133
and another bird a mile east of Cty Rd 7 on Stone Lake Rd. Another bird
was reported on the Beyer Rd near Jean Duluth Rd and the Strand Rd on
the 24th.

The Millards also found a GREAT GRAY OWL on Cty Rd 83, 2.5 miles south
of 27. Jim Lind found another today on the Stanley Rd (Cty Rd 9) about
4 miles west of Hwy 61 and the Two Harbors Ford dealership. Doug
Johnson found another along Hwy 61 one mile west of Flood Bay. Yet
another Great Gray was seen along Cty Rd 16 between Makinen and
Brimson. The bird was in the vicinity of the extensive spruce bog one
mile west of the entrance to the Whiteface National Forest Service
Campground. Uwe Kausch had a GREAT GRAY OWL at his house northeast of
Duluth.

The first SNOWY OWL of the season was found October 23rd at Paradise
Beach in Cook County, about 14 miles northeast of Grand Marais.