Boreal Owl Waking Up

February has been a good month.  I hope the owls make it back home.

These beautiful birds are here for one purpose, to survive.  Unfortunately not all are making it.  For those of us who do not live in the Duluth area Sam Cook has been a great source of regular information.  This is a link to one of his recent columns and I would encourage you to read his earlier columns as well.
Boreal Owls Dying 

Boreal Owl Yawning

This owl seems to be yawning. When seen with its other behaviors of stretching and preening the owl appears to be waking up.

Technical: frame pulled from video, ISO about 5000, 1/60 sec.,f 5.6.  WB corrected in Lightroom

Boreal Owl Preening in Forest -Raw footage from Dale Bohlke on Vimeo.

The challenge of an irruption is to find an owl in natural habitat, doing what it normally does.  I found this guy in the woods late one afternoon and recorded it while it went through its wake up routine.  This unedited footage, with its flaws, is one of 30 video files currently being arranged into story form.