Look Whooo's Here For Food

Birders Call Great Great Owl Sighting Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience

Posted: 3:01 pm CST March 7, 2005Updated: 10:25 am CST March 8, 2005

Birders call seeing the great gray owl -- probably the world's largest owl -- a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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Thousands of the big birds have swooped down from Canada into Minnesota and Wisconsin. Birders in the Madison area are scanning the skies for a glimpse.

Pat Ready saw one last week near Lake Kegonsa State Park.

"Oh, that was cool," he said. "I mean, I had seen them before when I was up-north, but to see one down here and to have him just sitting there so I can get photos of him, that was really neat. The distinctive mark is this white hairy hair -- it's called the moustache."

Ready snapped a photograph (left) of the owl Wednesday morning near the entrance to Lake Kegonsa State Park, across from an electric substation. The 28-to-30-inch owl was perched atop a telephone pole.

"Right on (the) abandoned utility poles," Ready said. "That's a good height for him to sit up, and then he can look down at the ground and see any mouse or vole activity on the ground."

Ready, Eggert

The owls are here looking for food after the mice and mole population crashed in Canada. Great Gray Owls can grow to be nearly 3 feet tall and are known for their loud, low and descending, "Whooooo, woo, woo ... " according to OwlInstitute.org.

Those who live near Lake Kegonsa said the owls are causing quite a commotion.

"Well, it was just weird because there were all these people hovering around, and we didn't know what it was about," one neighbor said. "We were like, 'Wow, is there police? Was there a stabbing or something?'"

Birding groups estimate there are several great gray owls in the area. One was spotted as far south as Janesville. Some birders are reporting hawk owl sightings too.