View allAll Photos Tagged SnowyOwl
Nice to catch one on a natural perch. Special thanks to Glenn
and Keith for keeping me company over the past two days.
Parkland County, Alberta.
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Sleepy Snowy.
Sometimes that blob of white I see way out in a stubble field actually is a Snowy Owl. I have been fooled by snow covered rocks and white plastic bags caught on weeds.
We aren't seeing many around here so far.
Strathcona County, Alberta. (TWP 540 east of HWY 21 for locals)
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My first Snowy of the 2020/21 season with wings in an angel pose. It was scared by a truck and ts in the process of taking off.
Sharp-eyed Keith Huang spotted this beautiful male out in a field while he, Peter Stahl and I were cruising around the Beaverhills Lake area today. It was far off, but Keith generously offered me the use his 500 mm f/4 to get a closer shot. Thanks Keith :)
Beaver County, Alberta.
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This is probably one of the last group of Snowy Owls that I will shoot in the 2021/22 winter season. Extremely strong north winds two days ago apparently forced down in my area return migrants in unexpectedly large numbers. I had seen only a trickle of stopovers in the area in my prior recent outings to look for hares.
A last half-hour-of-sunlight casual friend. We saw eye-to-eye on everything during our brief relationship!
First of the season on a typical power pole perch (power lines edited out).
Strathcona County, Alberta.
I thought I would look back over my 2020 un-posted shots and post my personal favorite. I didn't process this one back then because the upper wing tips were just barely inside of the original frame and there was no pleasing composition.
I opened it up and increased the canvass size of the original file which gave me room to add the blue sky pixels beside and above above those wing tips.
It was great to find her on a fairly low perch on a skinny branch rather than on the top of a power pole. This female is much more heavily barred than the female I posted a few days ago.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
Snowy Owl
Many thanks to all those who View, Comment and or Fave My Photos... It is greatly appreciated... Roy
All images full frame unless the filename reflects "Crop"
I am posting a real Snowy Owl today. Thanks for your kind comments on my male Snowy Owl carving posted just before this. Much appreciated.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
A sunny, cloudless but cold day here. This beauty was fluffed up against - 17 C and a brisk wind.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
This image show the heavily barred wings and flanks typical of a female. The four tail bars are clearly seen. A male at any stage of life usually has only two tail bars. As males age, they become much whiter. A nine or ten year old male is almost pure white. Females keep the dark barring marks.
Paintearth County, Alberta.
Year-after-year I cut off a wing of my first good chance at a Snowy launching off a perch. No excuses: it is what it is, and has now become an uncanny festive season tradition for me.
One of the most pure white males I have seen. This is an old guy, at least 10 years of life.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
I love the look backs that one often gets from Snowy Owls on a wrap around flight path. Does he really think that I am going to fly after him?
I guess we all prefer to catch a Snowy Owl on a more natural perch, but there she was. We are not seeing many in these parts this winter. I refer to this Owl as female because it has four tail bands. According my Owl banding friends a male usually has two bands, rarely three, but never four.
I cloned out the wire from the insulator because there were several frayed bits of wire on her perch which were ugly and distracting.
I found this Owl in Strathcona County on RR 222 north of TWP 540. My local friends know exactly where this is.
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