First, I appreciate all the comments. I thought it might be a mate for  
the following reasons;
The one (now dead) owl was definitely larger than the other, so the  
smaller owl prevailed. Otherwise a smaller juvenile won out over an  
older owl?
Second, One bird was here all morning until almost 1PM. It left and  
about an hour later number two arrived. I though perhaps they were  
doing a nest exchange if eggs had been laid already.
Third, no more hooting at night, at least not last night. Don't know  
if this means anything but thought if there was still one pair there  
might be some back and forth hooting going on.

As for the end of the saga, here are some interesting (to me) details.
At the site of the kill there is very little sign of the tussling we  
observed. (Owls rolling with one eventually on top). There is a poop  
which I am fairly certain must be the poop of the deceased owl.  
Heading downhill in the direction we saw the victor fly there are  
periodic marks on the snow which appear to be drag marks. I never saw  
the owl get more than a few feet off the ground. In fact it failed in  
its first attempt to fly with its quarry. About 50 feet downhill in a  
brush thicket is a pile of mostly downy feathers with a few longer  
wing feathers, but nowhere near the quantity I would have assumed. I  
found two extremely tiny bits of bloodied flesh. EVERYTHING else is  
gone...no sign of head nor feet. And for what it is worth there were  
chickadees surrounding the thicket where I found the remains and they  
were making the oddest sounds I have ever heard from chickadees...very  
guttural.

One other detail. The deceased owl had dove a few times into the snow  
and come up empty. Soon after the death we saw a mouse emerge from  
under the snow in a spot near where the owl had been diving and was  
eventually killed. This rodent surfaced and scampered far away. It  
seemed to know that it was now safe to move, emerge and escape.

Thanks again for the ideas. I think at this point guesses are all we  
have so I appreciate all of them.

Mary

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