Friday, 5 February 2021: our temperature is -16C (windchill -26C) at 10:30 am. Sunrise is at 8:06 am, and sunset is at 5:34 pm. We are back to very cold temperatures again, with night temperatures down to between -26C and -33C for the next few days. A few snow flurries are forecast for this afternoon, but I have an appointment to get an oil change after the car maintenance light came on, so I have no choice but to go out.
On 17 January 2021, I had commented on a fellow photographer’s old Snowy Owl photo taken late last year. I said that there didn’t seem to be as many of these magnificent birds this winter. Immediately, Ron sent me a Flickr mail, telling me in which area he had seen several of them. My reply was that that was a long drive and further than I would normally drive. And that was that. However, I kept looking at the map, knowing that a good part of the distance was new to me. Then I began to think that maybe I could do it after all. No desperation, no need to get out there immediately. In fact, 13 days went by before this trip. Thank you so much, Ron, for passing on this information to me and later, to at least one other person. Though we both had successful days, we can only take part of the credit for our finds. I would never have even thought of travelling to this area. Of course, there was still no guarantee that any owls would be seen, but it was fun to explore a new place. Thoroughly enjoyed myself finding and photographing various old barns and sheds, too.
I had planned out my main route – and then the weather forecast changed at the last minute. Now the forecast said it was going to be a cloudy day with sunny breaks. Did I really want to go? When I checked the forecast for the coming week, snow was forecast for four days and I knew I would never drive rough roads after a snowfall. So, I knew I had better go. I wasn’t sure if any photos would turn out with such low light, but they seemed usable. One thing that I was definitely not impressed to see, shortly before reaching my destination, was the sudden appearance of my car’s maintenance light come on!
I saw three Snowy Owls; two females and 1 male. The first female decided to fly when I was ridiculously far down the road. Maybe she had spotted some prey? The second owl was the female seen in all the photos posted the last two days. She was perched on a far away silo. She had her back to me and stayed that way. When she turned her head to preen her back feathers, at least I could see her face. She knew I was there, as she had glanced my way two or three times, but was comfortable enough to sit and preen for a little while. The third owl was a beautiful white male. I hadn’t seen it, perched on top of a power pole, but when I pulled over to stop and check my map, suddenly there was a flap of huge white wings seen out of the corner of my eye. No photos of either the first or third bird.
A few other birds that I saw included a flock of maybe 10 or so Gray Partridge that flew across the road in front of my car, and a fairly large flock of Snow Buntings, behaving the way they always do.
On the way home, I decided to quickly check on a few things east of the city. Nothing new, but nice to see a few familiar old barns and sheds.
So glad I made myself do this new drive.
