The intense thunderstorm on Tuesday night did an incredible amout of damage to the trees in the North Woods. The trees on the Great Hill seemed to be the worst hit. 

Bedrock is near the surface throughout much of the park and many trees have very shallow root systems.  A few of the trees used by the Eastern Screech-Owls were hurt including a large tree used by last year’s fledglings to roost in almost all summer.  A large number of trees used by raccoons also fell, including a favorite I call the Keebler Elf tree, since at times more than six raccoons lived in the base of the tree which was hollow.

I only had my long telephoto with me today, so I had to take photos of the damage with my iPhone at dusk.  These few pictures show only a fraction of the damage.

At dusk, we only saw glimpses of owls, so there are no photographs.  We viewed one gliding down to a standard post-fly out preening area, and one near a rustic bridge.  It would have been nice to know for sure, that both had survived the storm, but knowing that at least one made it was positive news.