November 2
Good Morning
I had a busy day today. I left home at 7:30 am and headed south of Edmonton about an hour and fifteen minutes to look for the first Snowy Owl of the season. My earliest photo is from November 8th a couple of years ago. But with our recent cold weather I decided to give it a try. Plus the forcasted high today was 20°C!
So after spectacular sunrise, I hit the road. I checked out one of last years hot spots but to no avail.
I headed into Wetaskiwin for gas and just as I approached the city limits, I noticed a Prairie falcon flying beside me. It landed on a telephone pole so I pulled over and started firing. Amazingly, it let me approach quite closely. After a few minutes, it gave me a close fly-by and I was able to capture this image.
I lost site of it as it headed into town so I went and filled up my tank. On the way out of town, I noticed a seed-mill with a contingent of pigeons residing on the roof. Maybe this falcon is dining on city doves!
I headed east towards Bittern Lake, another owl hot spot. As I was driving along the highway, I noticed something on a fence down in a ravine by a frozen pond. I turned around, parked in the ditch and confirmed my suspicion. It was an immature bald eagle. The recent cold snap has frozen all of the shallow ponds and as there is no snow, it has left the countryside dotted with mirror-like reflecting ponds. I worked my way down through the dried thistles and brush towards the edge of the pond. After watching me for a while, the eagle decided it didn’t like my company and took flight.
I continued on my way, stopping at a location known for Short-eared Owls. There were none around ; probably too warm and too early in the day. As I completed my route, I saw down the road a silhouette of a bird on top of a telephone pole. It was perched like a hawk but had a large body. As I got closer I realized it was a Snowy Owl. I have been photographing Snowy Owls for over five years now and I have never seen on perched with its wings visible. I parked my truck and took a few safety shots through the window (in case it flew away). I got out and slowly approached it a few steps at a time. It took about 20 minutes to get up beside it on the opposite side of the road. I waited there for another half hour and it just continued to look around searching for prey. A sudden gust of wind gave me a chill and I headed back to the truck for my jacket. As I walked backwards towards the truck, the owls shook its body and fluffed out its feathers. Voila, it wings disappeared and the familiar silhouette appeared!
I spent the next four hours searching for more owls but didn’t see any more. After watching a beautiful sunset, I returned home, 11 hours after I had left. It was great way to spend the last warm day of the year.
Stay well !
