It is on the Magog Road about here 44.329222, -69.188444. About 1.5 miles apart by road but about 4500' as the mobbing crows fly. Between the 2 sites I only really briefly visited the cemetery location, opting to spend most of the day waiting it out at this field instead due to the wind and crowds.
For the record, there were a lot of great (and very excited) birders and photographers around and, at least at this field and while I was present, everyone was very respectful of both the possibility of the bird before it showed up, and of the actual bird when it did. We were generally 350' away from the bird to begin with at the road edge and just at the edge of the field. If the bird was ever any closer it was its choice not ours. A brief conversation came up where someone asked what we thought about them moving 10-15' closer, but that was cured by that noting that "giving an inch, sometimes they will take a mile".
Since my previous email was just to let everyone know it is still around, here are more of the details around it.
I arrived around 11AM and scanned this field first. I mistakenly turned down this road thinking it would lead to the cemetery. There was no sign of the bird throughout the day at either location. There was a fairly steady stream of birders moving between the two sites and sharing information (mostly the lack of information). The wind was fairly constant throughout the day only winding down around 3:30PM or so.
A couple of administrative items for this location.
We had a conversation with the owner of the Christmas Tree field. He was incredibly nice and is a budding birder himself and therefore understanding of what we as a group were doing. I would assume that patience would wear thin if things like littering or other wear and tear to his property started to happen.
There was a sign at the edge of the field that had a broken post and was laying on the ground. Not sure if it was caused by the presence of this owl or not, but if anyone heading up there has a sledgehammer they can bring up and pound it back in, that might be a nice gesture.
Also regarding parking. At one point, I parked on one side of the road while another car was on the field side, I parked enough away that I did not think it would be a problem but later another 8 cars or so pulled up and all parked on the opposite side of the road which made my truck a bit of a traffic hazard. This was brought to my attention by a local who asked that we consider parking only on one side of the road(I did relocate it). The road there is a bit narrow and according to them, they tend to fly through there normally.
At this site there were a few instances of crows mobbing over the day but none were very long or boisterous and usually contained 4-6 crows. The one we had at the end of the day, which occurred in the woods behind the old school bus that was behind the woodpile opposite the Christmas Tree field attracted a dozen or more and was extremely loud. 44.328233, -69.188251
The crows stayed higher in the trees and seemed to be pushing their target (at that point assumed to be either the owl or possibly a hawk that was spotted earlier in the day) southwest along Magog but in the denser growth lower down. Eventually, they lost interest and disbanded. We waited about 10-15 minutes to see if the bird would emerge as this was when the winds had started to die down and seemed like a good time for an owl to start considering hunting. We focused our attentions on the corner of the field in front of the bus and to the right of the wood pile. Moments after one of us left to go over to the Cemetery location to see if the bird had relocated there, I scanned the Christmas Tree field and noted the bird about 20' up in an evergreen. It sat there for 20 minutes or so. At one point it was harassed by a single crow but a few passes was as long as that lasted. After a bit the bird took off and started moving around the field alighting on the tops of the Christmas trees as it went.
Thanks Fyn for finding this and sharing it.
Thanks to the land owner for his understanding of us.
Thanks to everyone today who helped me officially knock off another lifer.
And to hell with the angels, I want one of these on top of my Christmas tree next year!
If anyone has any further questions, please let me know.
Rob O'Connell
490 Greely Road Extension
Cumberland, ME 04021
H-207-221-3462
M-207-450-4092
-----Original Message-----
From: maine-birds@googlegroups.com [mailto:maine-birds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Roger Stevens
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 7:25 PM
To: Maine birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Maine-birds] Great Gray owl
Thanks, Rob! Is that anywhere near the cemetery down there?
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