Shadows of Dusk

The great gray owl is a rare northern owl who hunts the dense evergreen forest of southern Canada and the northern United States. With a wing-span of fifty-four to sixty inches and a height of twenty-four to thirty inches, the great gray is the largest North American owl in size, although not in weight.

Great grays are distinguished by their yellow eyes, puffy head and the concentric circles of its facial disks. Like other northern owls, such as the snowy and short-eared, great grays do some daytime hunting. Their silent flight makes them wraithlike even in daylight. They prey on mice, voles, chipmunks and other small mammals.

Man has killed so many of these great grays that they have become scarce. Today they are protected along with other birds of prey and their numbers are increasing. Still, it is rare, and always exciting, to spot even one of them. This pair was in the Cascade Mountains, hunting in a forest of ponderosa pine and juniper.