Far, far away

Interesting, I don't usually follow Stats this closely, but I just happened to notice that I have just suddenly lost about 1,000 views for today. I have read others' comments about this happening, but don't remember noticing it with my own stats before. I could tell that there was something "wrong", anyway, as the graph is barely moving.

If you only knew how far away this Great Gray Owl was! The far side of a field, perched on top of a very tall, wooden power pole. From that distance, the owl looked like part of the pole itself, and I'm sure I would never have noticed it by myself. Thought I would try a heavily zoomed in shot, despite the distance and the overcast sky. One or two photos came out well enough to keep, but the rest need to be deleted. The colour of the owl's plumage is not really accurate. This was the first of three Great Gray Owls that I photographed on 21 March 2018.

There is still so much deep snow in the fields and there could be a crust on top after the recent melting and freezing. Also, apparently, so few Meadow Vole tracks have been seen this winter, so maybe food is in shorter supply. I didn't see any of the owls dive down in an attempt to catch a snack, but they were all sharply focused on hunting.

"The great grey owl or great gray owl (Strix nebulosa) is a very large owl, documented as the world's largest species of owl by length..... In terms of length, the great grey owl is believed to exceed the Eurasian eagle-owl and the Blakiston's fish owl as the world's largest owl. The great grey is outweighed by those two species as well as several others, including most of the Bubo genus. Much of its size is deceptive, since this species' fluffy feathers, large head and the longest tail of any extant owl obscure a body lighter than that of most other large owls. The length ranges from 61 to 84 cm (24 to 33 in), averaging 72 cm (28 in) for females and 67 cm (26 in) for males. The wingspan can exceed 152 cm (5 ft 0 in), but averages 142 cm (4 ft 8 in) for females and 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) for males. The adult weight ranges from 580 to 1,900 g (1.28 to 4.19 lb), averaging 1,290 g (2.84 lb) for females and 1,000 g (2.2 lb) for males. The males are usually smaller than females, as with most owl species." From Wikipedia. The link below shows how small the skeleton is, compared to the size of the bird.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_owl

I thought the weather was supposed to be sunny on this day, but it was overcast, at least while I was there. Yesterday was even worse, with dense fog. More snow was expected and it arrived yesterday afternoon. I had a very important appointment to go to in the afternoon, plus I had to remove my car from the parking lot for five hours, so that at least some of the snow and ice could be removed. No street parking without a permit, so I knew I had five hours to kill. In the end, I decided to drive out of the city, but after maybe five minutes of driving on a major highway, I knew I had made a foolish mistake. I couldn't see any other vehicles or even much of the road ahead of me, because of the fog. In the end, I had to turn up a back road, as it would have been very dangerous to try and cut across several lanes when I could see absolutely nothing. It was a relief when I finally reached home.

This week has been full of appointments of one kind or another, so convenient time has been very limited. This afternoon, I have to get my Taxes seen to, and that will be great to get out of the way. Hoping to get out with my camera at the weekend, though. Our temperature this morning is plus 2C and the sun is shining.