recently captured a photo of an great gray owl.

MASSENA – A Massena woman photographed what she believes to be a great gray owl, which are not known to be in St. Lawrence County.

“I sent some of the photos to New York State Conservationist Magazine and they sent an email back wondering where I had taken the photos because this was the first time they'd ever been sent a photo of a great gray owl,” said photographer Pam Monacelli of Massena.

“From what the email said the owl is definitely not in his natural environment, they looked into recent sightings and said that a few years ago there were about fifty sightings in Quebec,” she said.

Monacelli said it was a chance sighting, but that she and her husband were lucky enough to see the great gray owl two days in a row in different areas, the first area being a dirt road near the Massena Intake and the second area being Robert Moses State Park.

“Since the distance from one area to the other was only about a mile apart, maybe it was the same one but I suppose we'll never know,” she said.