[Bristol-Birds] big owl invasion against set for NBC news
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 00:55:15 -0500
Andy Jones, one of our birders who is in graduate school at the University
of Minnesota, wrote tonight to inform me that NBC news has again sechedule
to run a news report on the northern owl invasion they are experiencing.
Sharon Stiteler got a call "from Stephanie at NBC Nightly News, the
Minnesota owl segment with me [Sharon Stiteler], Carrol Henderson and Jim
Lind will probably air Tuesday night February 9 between 5:30pm - 6pm. It
supposed to be the final segment to finish on a happy note. Because of
this, if something super exciting happens in the news, it could get bumped."
The 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. is Central Time so it would be 6:30 to 7 p.m.
Eastern Time.
The news feature had been recently scheduled when NBC was doing special
reports from Minnesota but it got bumped.
The owl invasion is beyond imagination.
Andy is from Kingsport in Northeast Tennessee. He has been active with the
Bristol Bird Club.
On the weekend of Jan. 29-30-31 Andy had an simply amazing birding weekend.
Brett Benz, Muir Eaton, and Mark Robbins from Kansas joined Andy and
Brian Barber.
On Sunday, Jan. 31, they started before dawn in Duluth and drove west into
Aitkin County, then around noon went southeast to Pine County. After 7.5
hours they had found 226 Great Gray Owls!!! They also found 9 N Hawk Owls,
1 Boreal Owl (total of 5 owl species for the weekend).
Andy went on to write:
More on those Great Gray Owls - we began seeing Great Grays along Hwy
210 east of McGregor in Aitkin County as soon as it was light enough to see.
37 had been seen by 8am moving west on 210
63 by the time we hit Palisade at 8:40
84 by 10:30 after going south on 169 and then Co 3
115 by 11:15 going south on 65
150 by 11:55 - very large concentrations along 65 south of McGregor
155 by 12:00
226 total seen by 4pm, with 71 in Pine Co and 155 in Aitkin
Note also that we found three dead Great Grays - one roadkill in Aitkin
Co and two shot with high-powered rifles near Sandstone.
We didn't set out to break any records on the Great Grays, we just
wanted to get into the areas of high concentration and see the
spectacle. But by 9am we knew that we had an incredible day ahead of us
and pushed ahead all day, with all 5 pairs of eyes constantly searching
for the birds. The day was overcast and windless, so the birds were
active all day. We averaged over 1 owl per mile, including some
stretches with about ten birds in a mile.
Maybe those of us down this way will get to enjoy a little of the excitement
Andy and others have been thrilled with if NBC news airs the feature this
week.
Let's go birding.....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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