Like many Wyoming residents on the 4th of July, Frank Stetler fled the parades, explosions and mayhem a couple years ago, opting instead for the quiet of the mountains.
The Lander resident, who works as a Wyoming Game and Fish Department nongame biologist, sought refuge in the southern Wind River Range.
Headed down a trail, he noticed a snapped-off lodgepole pine snag with an “odd shape” on top.
“Then, all of a sudden, I was like, ‘Oh, the odd shape on top of this lodgepole is looking back at me,’” Stetler recalled.
It was an unmistakable gaze for a serious birder like Stetler, a past chair of the Wyoming Birds Records Committee. He knew immediately: Great gray owl. Not only that, but based on calls he heard and the proximity of another great gray he spotted shortly thereafter, it was a nesting female.
Holding up his phone camera to a binocular lens, Stetler snapped a photo of the find.
It was exciting. The distribution of breeding great grays, a large owl with an especially pronounced facial disc, wasn’t known to extend so far south into the Rocky Mountains. Other than the genetically distinct great gray subspecies, Strix nebulosa Yosemitensis, which lives in California’s Sierra Nevada Range, this was the southernmost of its kind.
Stetler and others kept an eye on the closely guarded nest site, but owlets never materialized that summer of 2023.
The Winds owl’s nest site was a challenging location, at more than 2,500 feet higher than the more typical great gray nest sites found in Jackson Hole. The high altitude pushed the nesting timing back by a whole month. And it was located in a place where it could be easily disturbed by people recreating or looking deliberately for the great gray — a prized find.
“If birders travel to Wyoming, for any birding, [great grays] are usually at the very top of the list,” Stetler said.
Although the nest failed, there’s some evidence that great grays are continuing to eke out an existence in the southernmost reaches of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
“We had one in [Lander] City Park this winter that hung out for at least a month,” Stetler said.
Unfortunately, the bird was found dead from a suspected vehicle strike. But there have been others.
“We had one in town, off of Mortimore Lane, a month ago,” Game and Fish nongame bird biologist Zach Wallace said. “I saw it.”
And there are still signs of Strix nebulosa high in the Winds.
On Saturday, great gray expert Katherine Gura, a Colorado State University research scientist, went up to survey the vacated nest site and larger territory that Stetler stumbled into two summers before. For hours, she hooted and combed over the Shoshone National Forest, scanning the skies for movement and timberstands for roost trees.
Targeting the wet meadows where great grays make a living on voles and other rodents, Gura found what she was looking for.
“I didn’t end up finding any owls, but I did find two fresh feathers, so the area is still occupied by great grays, which was exciting to confirm,” Gura reported to WyoFile in an email. “The wind and rain picked up, so it wasn’t great searching weather,” she added. “I’m sure they were around nearby!”
MY BEST SIGHTING OF GREAT GRAY OWL WAS 2 YEARS AGO OUT MY KITCHEN WHERE OUR VISITOR SPENT 20minutes ON THE DECK RAILING JUST HANGING OUT 10 FT AWAY FROM THE WINDOW. NOW THAT WAS SPECTACULAR!
I have 5 (3 juveniles) Gray horned owls living in my back yard. I have great videos of them, lots of pictures.