Owls 2

A friend and I spent part of today driving the gravel roads east of the city, including the Irricana and Shepard areas. Snowy Owls had been reported recently, so off we went in the hopes of possibly finding one. Well, we were so lucky, seeing three different ones. This is the first one, then we saw the next one on a fence post way across a field. The third one was perched high up (like the one in the image above) on a tangle of wires, so really not a very beautiful setting : ) Always SO amazing to see a Snowy Owl, especially on a lovely sunny day. Not the sharpest of images because of pointing my camera up towards the sky, but I'll take any image that I manage to get of one of these magnificent owls : )

It really is quite something to look into the eyes of a Snowy Owl from just a few feet away. This is the female Snowy at the Calgary Zoo (near the Tigers). Each year, I always hope that maybe they will nest and have young ones like they did in the summer of 2006, but I'm still hoping. The Snowy Owl is the offical bird of Quebec.

This beautiful Barred Owl is one of the many injured birds being cared for at the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, north west of Calgary and west of Innisfail. We were so lucky to be able to spend the day on 4th July botanizing the forest and meadows of the area. I still haven't seen this species of owl in the wild. Some of you may be having the same problems again with trying to type a description under your images. Every time a lowercase f is typed, you are sent straight to "on black" and you lose all your typing. Hope they fix this again soon! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_Owl ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was Snowy Owl number 3 that a friend and I saw east of the city on 23rd November. A handsome male, though not taken from a very good angle : ) Love those huge, feathered feet. I grabbed three photos rather quickly this evening and I'm posting a bit late. Had my afternoon volunteer shift today, which was totally, totally exhausting, especially as we are getting so close to Christmas. Managed to drive there despite still feeling a bit dizzy (mainly if I bend my head or turn my head to the side) - I avoided most shoulder checks, using the side mirrors instead! On my way home, I decided to call in at Swiss Chalet take-out for one of their Festive Meals - absolute luxury! I always feel very grateful that I can afford to do this, which too many people are unable to do.

I happened to come across this photo of a little Burrowing Owl that I hadn't posted, so thought I'd upload today. It was taken on 23rd May 2009 at the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, Southern Alberta. A delightful place to visit, and they do such a great job of rescuing and, whenever possible, releasing injured birds of prey. Those, whose injuries are too severe for them to be released back into the wild, remain at the Centre to educate children and adults. Such a thrill to see these birds up close. This Centre is "Canada’s largest birds of prey facility. Situated on a 70-acre wetland area site, the centre is a celebration of nature featuring the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls of Alberta. Throughout the site and along the pathways, a number of birds of prey are sitting on their perches only feet away from visitors. These birds are all in various stages of training and receive lots of exercise in the daily flying programs. At the centre, they have one of North America's largest captive breeding populations for the endangered Burrowing Owl." www.burrowingowl.com/ It rained a lot overnight and, so far, the day is overcast and lightless. Rain on and off today. I cancelled plans to go forest exploring ... sigh. Temperatures soared to a balmy 8C today and possible snow/frost are in the forecast for later this week. Oh, no : (

A couple of days ago, I called in at my local park and went to check on a family of five Great Horned Owls. They were all way up an embankment, but so amazing to see. Dad was in his own tree, Mom (seen above) was perched on this broken tree trunk, keeping an eye on her three young ones who were all playing together in the grasses and plants and then two of them flew up into a tree. Quite a handful for their Mom : ) 18x zoom plus a crop, so it looks like I was much closer than I actually was : ) Just got home from a day of botanizing south of the city, near Black Diamond, at the Three Point Creek Natural Area. We even had Great Horned Owls flying nearby when we were there - gosh, there are owls everywhere, LOL! A fairly hot day - too hot for me, but at least there was no rain, so we were really lucky. On the way home, we called in at a Bakery and coffee shop in Black Diamond - the coffee tasted SO good! Ralph, if you happen to get on to Flickr and see this - thanks again so much for driving today - much appreciated!

As you can tell by the lush green surroundings, this is not a new photo, but one that I took back in June : ) I tend to post closer shots than this, but I thought it was kind of nice to see a bit of the area which this Great Gray Owl called/calls "home". This fence and post were right by the road : ) The only thing of interest for this Owl was watching intensely for "food" - not a bit concerned that I was there.

Well, Don, I guess some of us have to find a Barred Owl wherever we can find it, LOL - in this case, at the amazing Medicine River Wildlife Centre, north west of Calgary. A few of us had the chance to spend a day there, botanizing the land around the centre as well as enjoying seeing some of the injured or orphaned wildlife that was there, on July 4th. This is a species of owl that I still haven't seen in the wild, and would love to. Don has said he will bring his wild Barred Owl to Calgary this winter, and in exchange, I'll give him our tiny Northern Pygmy-owl, ha, ha!!!

Oh, boy, talk about chromatic aberation (the purple edging to the branch and some of the feathers). Really not good quality photography, but I just love this little Northern Pygmy-owl's intense stare, as it focuses on the ground below, watching for the slightest movement. It's bloodied beak tells that it had recently had a meal. Remember, these tiny owls are fist-sized or popcan-sized : ) Imagine how difficult it is to find one of these little birds of prey. As with all my photos of this owl, this is a zoomed in, cropped image : ) I think I only have about three more photos of this owl fit to post, so please bear with me! After a beautiful morning of sun and blue sky, the weather has changed to overcast as the temperature rose. I think it was about -16C when I left home early this morning for a three-hour walk at Carburn Park. Everywhere was covered in ice crystals, especially along the river's edge, and vapour was rising up from the Bow River. Managed just a quick shot or two here and there, as I was with a bunch of friends and so had to keep moving : ) Just looking at my photos makes me shiver. Sometimes, I look at photos like these, think of being tucked up in a nice warm bed, or sitting with a huge mug of hot coffee, shake my head, and wonder what stage of insanity I am at, LOL!!! Can it really get any worse, ha?