January 24
It is January 24 and winter has finally arrived. -20°C today. Connor and I went out to the power plant cooling ponds to see if we could find a Golden Eagle. A couple are hanging around the winter ducks. We dipped on the Golden Eagles, but did find 13 Bald Eagles, a Great Grey Owl and a Gyrfalcon.
We spotted the Great Grey Owl first but it was skittish and disappeared into the deep woods after a few minutes.
Ten of the Bald eagles were collected around a deer carcass. I assume the cold temperatures and fresh meat concentrated the number of eagles. They got chased off when two coyotes came in for a bite. They were too far away to photograph but we did find another couple that we got close to. That is by far the most eagles we have seen in one day in Alberta.
The Gyrfalcon was a nice surprise. It was sitting on a sign along the road and stayed there only long enough for us to get a couple of shots. This is a different one than the one I saw in early December. It is a juvenile (it has a blue cere and eye patch) and is only about 35km from where I saw the other one which was an adult (with a yellow cere). They are known to fly 100 km per day in search of food. A real highlight for Connor as he has not seen one for a few years and this was his first opportunity to photograph one.
It is forecast to be cold for the next week so I will get out and try to find some co-operative owls. They tend to hunt more when it is cold out.
Stay well !