What a treat : )

Full zoom and highly cropped, but I'm still very happy to get any Snowy Owl photo at all that is more than an extremely distant view! When I eventually got home after the Memorial service and get-together afterwards for our good friend, Doug Waylett, the day before yesterday, I checked my phone for any messages. I tend to forget to do this on too many days, but I found a wonderful message asking if I'd like to join friends to go Snowy Owl searching north-east and east of the city. So, yesterday, I drove across the city to meet them and off we went. We managed to find three of them, the first two being far away, but the third one (above) was high up on a pole way ahead of us. Two of us got out and very slowly made our way a little closer on foot, before the Owl decided to take off. So, once again, tears were streaming down my face, but unlike all my recent tears at losing a good friend, yesterday's tears were because I was standing out in the cold air and strong wind and this always makes my eyes water. Long talons came in handy for clinging to the wire, holding on against the wind. It was just about impossible to hold the camera steady in that wind. Thanks so much for this much-appreciated trip, Laura and Mike!

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Owl/id/ac

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Owl

We know Crows are intelligent - take a look at this Russian Crow who used the lid from a jar to do some fun roof-surfing!

on.rt.com/nr8368

rt.com/news/russian-roof-surfing-crow-649/