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We have a story this morning about owls who flew south for the winter - to Minnesota. They're owls from Canada, so Minnesota is their snowbird refuge this year. Bird enthusiasts are flocking to see them, which turns out it's not so good for the owls. Dan Kraker of Minnesota Public Radio reports.
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DAN KRAKER, BYLINE: Last month, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources naturalist Michaela Rice got a report of a dead owl on the side of a highway along the north shore of Lake Superior. Rice says it looked like a turkey, it was so big.
MICHAELA RICE: I picked it up. It was incredibly light carcass. It felt like it was made out of styrofoam.
KRAKER: Then they saw the huge, round face and Rice knew it was a great gray. At about two feet, they're North America's tallest owl with a 5-foot wingspan.
RICE: It was unbelievable. And so all the bones were totally just crushed. Felt like I was kind of holding bubble wrap.
KRAKER: Rice says holding the owl felt like a gut punch. This was just one of several great grays struck and killed by vehicles this year.
RICE: These birds live in areas where they don't encounter people. And they are so camouflaged. I mean, their wings look like bark. Their body looks like a tree. And so they rely on that camouflage and they don't think people can see them, right?
KRAKER: This winter is what's known as an irruption. That's with an I. It's the largest in Minnesota in 20 years. They occur after a lot of baby owls are hatched the year before and then the following year, there's not enough food for all of them. So they fly south from Canada in droves in search of small rodents called voles.
SPARKY STENSAAS: We call it the invasion of the vole snatchers.
KRAKER: Sparky Stensaas is executive director of Friends of Sax-Zim Bog. The group has preserved about 25,000 acres of prime bird habitat in the region. He says the owls have brought an influx of people from around the world.
STENSAAS: Boreal owls, great gray owls, they're bucket list birds for people. And that's why folks come here.
KRAKER: That's what brought Michelle VanRossum here from Rhode Island with her friend and sister-in-law. They hired a guide to help them find owls to photograph.
MICHELLE VANROSSUM: I'm kind of obsessed with owls. They're just magical.
KRAKER: VanRossum saw great gray owls hunting, a northern hawk owl and a small boreal owl.
VANROSSUM: It's a once in a lifetime experience.
KRAKER: But it's an end of a lifetime for some of the owls. Several have been found dead along roadways. Others have been seriously injured. Valerie Slocum directs animal rehabilitation at the wildlife rehab center, Wildwoods, in Duluth.
VALERIE SLOCUM: There's one day we admitted five owls in one day.
KRAKER: Wow.
SLOCUM: Yeah. That's a really big owl day, very unusual.
KRAKER: She says most were hit by vehicles.
SLOCUM: Owls are predators, and so their eyes are fixed in the front of their face and they don't have very good peripheral vision. And so if they're flying across the road, they don't necessarily see the car that's coming towards them.
KRAKER: Slocum and others plead with people to give owls space. Frank Nicoletti is senior researcher at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth.
FRANK NICOLETTI: If you get too close, they'll feel that there's a threat, and they will fly away. And when they waste energy flying away from people, which happens a lot. It's a problem, 'cause they're using energy to do that.
KRAKER: And he says the owls are already stressed and hungry. Naturalist Michaela Rice says people should get excited when they see these owls.
RICE: I blow them kisses. I do try to send love to them, but in a way that I feel like I'm not disturbing them.
KRAKER: Keep your distance, Rice says. Appreciate them, but give them the respect they deserve. For NPR news, I'm Dan Kraker in Northern Minnesota.
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