In late December 2024, I was finally able to observe and photograph a Boreal Owl, a bird I’ve spent over 30 years looking for! Boreal Owls are diminutive and reclusive denizens of the northern forests. They are uncommon and nocturnal, so finding them is difficult.
Boreal Owls inhabit mature coniferous and mixed wood forests. Mature woods, with their sparse understory in the summer and uncrusted snow in winter, provide the owls with easy access to mice, voles and other prey. In the spring, they tend to hunt more in open meadows where prey is more abundant than in forested stands. While they feed mostly on small mammals, they also eat small birds and even insects.
Boreal Owls are secondary cavity nesters, preferring to nest in either natural cavities or old woodpecker holes in large aspen trees. Very few active nests have ever been found, so little is known about their nesting habits.
I was fortunate to be able to watch “my” Boreal Owl for several hours. It was tucked into the deep branches of a spruce tree when I first found it. It was sleeping, so I was happy to quietly watch it for an hour or so. It then awakened, stretched, scratched its beak, looked around and fell back asleep. It then stirred again, luckily when I had my video rolling, and proceeded to eject a pellet. I was thrilled to be able to film this behaviour. It again fell back asleep.
After another hour or so, it suddenly became very alert, stared intently with wide yellow eyes into the distant woods, then flew over my head, plunged down into an aspen forest snowpack and snagged itself a vole. How remarkable that it could hear a vole, under at least one metre of snow, at a distance of more than 10 metres!
By this time other photographers had joined me so, quietly and keeping a respectful distance, we made our way over to where the owl had landed on a low spruce branch. How remarkable it was to watch it devour the vole. It literally chugged it down, headfirst and whole, in about 15 big gulps.
It became more active after its big lunch, flying from perch to perch in the dense forest. Although these owls are tame (they were called “Blind Ones” by Indigenous peoples because they could be so easily caught by hand), I became concerned about potential stress caused by the gathering crowd. Thrilled with the encounter and the photographic opportunity, I silently thanked the owl and headed back to my vehicle.
I will still continue listening each spring for the call of the Boreal Owl, and I hope someday to discover a pair nesting in a tree cavity. In the meantime, I feel grateful for the opportunity to (finally) have been in the company of such a beautiful creature.
Myrna Pearman is a retired biologist, nature writer, photographer and author of several books. Her books are available at www.myrnapearman.com. She can be followed on Facebook and Instagram, and can be contacted at myrna@myrnapearman.com.
