Gyrfalcon

There is a funny story behind this image - but I won't tell you about it ("phew" says Cathy, lol!). From a great distance, this bird of prey still looked huge and appeared to have a white front. My heart skipped a beat at the possibility that this might be a Feruginous Hawk. However, when we got closer, it turned out to be a beautiful Gyrfalcon, perched on an ugly power pole, ha.

Spent the whole day SE of the city again on 13 March 2014, with friends Cathy and Terry. What a slow day it was for much of the time. Took us just over 6 hours to find the first Snowy Owl - just the tiniest, distant white speck on the ground, far across a huge field. We were beginning to wonder if maybe all the Snowies had already left to fly north, so we were happy to see this one, and a second one about four hours later, perched on a distant power pole. No photo opportunities for these owls, but it felt to good to know that there were at least these two owls still in the area. We had no luck at all finding a Short-eared Owl - very different from 7th March, when we saw 8 of them, six in flight and two on the ground. In addition to the 2 Snowies, we did see 9 Great Horned Owls, though, some on nests. Weather was beautiful with some interesting clouds for part of the day, clearing much later. We were just in time to see the last of the pink sunrise colour and light on the distant mountains - always so beautiful. Some of the fields looked pretty bare, while others were still covered in snow.