Not Catered

There seems to be a gathering of snowy owls nearby and some counts have been as high as in the 50's. Bird watchers and photographers from as far away as the US have come up for a look and even the local newspaper ran a story about it recently. This afternoon we had a look for ourselves and saw about 15. They were on the ground, in the trees, on fence posts, the roofs of houses and barns, and of course on electrical poles. We observed they poop a lot - everyone of them did so when we stopped at a respectful distance to grab a picture - and they apparently don't get along with the local crow population, or at times, each other.

 

It was getting late and we were on the way home when we spotted this one, who had just grabbed a vole. There was only time for hand holding the camera so it's not as sharp as I would like. Never the less, it was not something I'd seen before and the owl also swallowed the vole in one piece, which I hadn't expected either.

 

It should be noted the owl's dinner was not catered - we did not bait and did not observe any of the other people nearby do so either.

Done