If looks could kill ....

This Northern Hawk Owl flew into a Spruce tree, in amongst the branches and not in good light. No nice, clear shots, though I did manage to find a small hole from this angle. At least the setting is different from most of my photos of him recently. Taken NW of Calgary on March 29th. Yesterday (April 2nd) , I had a walk with a few friends in Weaselhead all morning and, as I was already about a third of the way to where this owl is, I decided to do the rest of the long drive. The weather was just beautiful, but the forecast for the rest of this week was less good (unless it has changed by now). Another very, very quiet day with very little activity, all of it taking place near the tops of very tall trees. It has been like this the last maybe 10 days or so, from my own experience and from what anyone else is saying. When I arrived at the location, there was one other car and a couple of people I'd never seen before had just returned to it. Thought I'd walk across the gravel road to check that they had been able to find the owl and to ask them if there had been much activity. However, I guess they weren't very friendly people, totally ignoring me and driving off, ha! Usually, I find people very friendly, so this felt rather weird. Almost decided not to actually go in by myself (ever since hearing about the Cougar tracks and the sound of Wolves!), but made myself do it. Took me ages to find the owl and it was only because it flew and I happened to be facing in the right direction. After maybe an hour and a half, I reckoned it was time to go home. I had just a few more steps to get back to my car, across rather treacherous ground (logs and branches all over, inches of water, some areas of still quite deep snow, when two ladies appeared from the road. We had met ages ago on a botany walk. They asked which direction they should walk in and I asked if they'd like me to show them the area. It was so nice to have company out there! They were thrilled to see their first Northern Hawk Owl, even though all they got were very, very high, distant views of the small owl near the top of a couple of different, extremely tall trees. Actually, this trip for me was more about hoping to find one of the Great Gray Owls that people have been seeing and possibly coming across the Spruce Grouse again. However, I was out of luck with both - again : ) One of these days ....

Posting a link a little bit late, when everyone has already stopped by. However, thought some of you might like this short footage of the three Amur Tiger cubs that were born at the Calgary Zoo on 30th March. Apparently, all three cubs are doing well amd Mom is doing all that she should be doing.

youtu.be/j9DWlyQtoOQ

WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THE CITY OF CALGARY!! Ha, thanks, Bonnie, for letting me know that great news!