Love their deep, dark eyes

I happened to come across this old photo from my archives recently, and decided to post it tonight. It was taken on 4 July 2010, when a few of us spent the day botanizing at the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, a long drive N of Calgary. The reason I thought I would post it now is that I was out this evening at a really excellent talk on Owls, given by Dr. Gordon Court, Provincial Wildlife Status Biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Division. He brought along a little injured Barred Owl - a bird Ambassador - for us to see. I think this is the same bird that I saw a few years ago, when I went to a talk at the University of Calgary. The cutest thing, who just sat the whole time, looking adorable. I always think it's such a shame that owls have so little intelligence, disproving the old saying 'wise as an owl", lol. I tried to take two or three photos, but the light in the room was awful and I didn't want to use flash.