Tonight at 10:15pm while standing outside my workplace in Pequot Lakes a large owl caught my eye as it hurled it self off of the cell phone tower in our parking lot, caught a prey item , and then returned to perch again on the cross bars of the cell tower. I was able to watch the owl hawking prey four times. The owl was hunting in this way between the top and second highest flashing red lights. I would guess the height to be 75-150'. While I had heard of owls hawking insects I have never seen the behavior firsthand and I was not aware that they would use a cell tower especially at that height to aid in their hunting.
I assume it was hawking large moths and other insects but for the dignity of the owl I hope it was not hunting those disgusting June Beetles : ) As to the identification of the owl - I cannot say definitively. I was never able to see the bird through my binoculars and the distance was too great to see field marks with the naked eye as it perched . Oh yeah, and it was dark - the owl was being lit only by the parking lot lights well below it. Best work break ever! Andrew Birch Blackwater Lake - near Hackensack, MN -- MNLEP <http://groups.google.com/group/mnlep> - A list for Butterfly Enthusiasts in Minnesota -- Blackwater Birds <http://blackwaterbirder.blogspot.com/> - My personal birding / nature blog -- "Birding is something that we do for enjoyment; so if you enjoy it, you're a good birder. If you enjoy it a lot, you're a great birder." - Kenn Kaufman ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
