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Success based on anothers failures is somehow not as satisfying. Though I am pleased with the pictures.
I don't mean to be argumentative, but I nowhere see your success as being based upon the owl's failures. Most animals are unsuccessful on most of their hunts. And that is a good thing, as if there were any that were successful all of the time, it would be detrimental to the balance of nature. All it did was to provide you with more opportunity. You still had to capitalize upon that opportunity.
I really never took it as argumentative. Sorry if it came across that way. GGOs are generally very successful in their hunts. Even under a foot of snow they are generally right on the money. Their remarkable hearing - bifocal ears, disk shape of their face to focus sound, silent approach - all lend themselves to a high degree of success. It was very surprising that during the two hours and forty-five minutes I watched a half dozen dives and no joy. I wondered about the lack of voles, the deep wet grass, the wet ground, and his ineptness, but didn't really understand. A friend went out the next day and saw some GGOs and they were successful in their hunts. Go figure. In the several years I've been looking I've only had a handful of extended visits like this. Usually they are successful right away and take the vole back to the nest or they fly across the field and disappear into the dense forest. So, it's true that his failure provided more opportunity, and I was able to capitalize. So much is luck. We later ran into another person on the road who has written books on Great Gray Owls and he didn't see any.
