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Great gray owl, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

 

A couple of owl photos from my collection...

 

Great gray owls are the largest owls in North America. A resident of boreal forests, they are more common in Canada and Alaska—in fact Yosemite is the southern end of the their range.

 

The afternoon before I made this photograph I had spotted my first great gray in Crane Flat Meadow, but hadn’t been able to photograph it. That night I dreamt that I photographed a great gray owl perched on a tree covered in bright green staghorn lichen. I rose early the next morning and returned, and soon spotted this owl hunting along the edge of one of the meadows. Eventually I followed it to another small strip of meadow, and as I walked around a bend found it perched in front of this white fir snag—covered in staghorn lichen. It posed for a minute or two as it listened for prey, then flew on to another perch.

 

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Uploaded on December 4, 2009
Taken on December 3, 2009