Northern Pygmy-owl, one year ago

This quite heavily cropped photo was taken one year and two days ago, in Fish Creek Park.

"The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny, but it’s a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white, with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes. They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help you find these unobtrusive owls, as can listening for their call, a high-pitched series of toots." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/id

These owls also have a taste for Meadow Voles and during the few weeks that this pair was seen, photographers saw them catch numerous Voles, including this unlucky little one. I have never once seen a Northern Pygmy-owl catch a songbird. This particular day was very quiet while I was there, with not much owl activity at all. We just lucked out when it caught this Meadow Vole. These tiny, fist-sized/popcan-sized owls (adults are 15–17 cm in overall length, nearly 6 inches) also sometimes catch prey that is bigger than themselves. They are diurnal and also hunt at dusk and dawn.

, ROL/Photo, Daniel Palacin, and 6 other people have particularly liked this photo

6 comments - The latest ones

Jaap van 't Veen ^club

GREAT catch !!

9 years ago.

Malik Raoulda ^club

Admirable ********

9 years ago.

Anne Elliott ^club

Thank you all so much!

9 years ago.

Anne Elliott ^club

Just an experiment to see if I can copy and paste comments from Flickr to add them here, so that I have them safe and sound in two places. It's not 100% sure if either site will keep going so, just in case .....

Greg Hensen 2d
Gorgeous image.
This is why I have so much respect for these tiny owls, they truly are incredible hunters.

Don Delaney PRO 1d
Amazing capture Anne!

Keith Huang Photography 1d
Awesome shot Anne!

Erika (WhiteEye2) PRO 1d
Amazing shot!!!

K.J.V.W 1d
Unbelievable Good Capture!

Amy Mitchell 1d
Wow, incredible shot! Our tundra swans and Canada geese just came back to the lake a couple days ago and I'm itching to get over there and try some photos. Not sure I can pull it off with my current lens though!

Janet 59 PRO 1d
He caught a large meal there!

Glenn Parker PRO 1d
Lovely shot Anne!

snowinglightly PRO 1d
That vole looks like it's still alive! :'-(
I had no idea the comparative sizes of predator and prey. I know the owls are little, but I expected there to be a much greater difference in their relative sizes!

Elaine Parker 1d
What an awesome photo. Amazing capture.

Grzegorz Grzesiak PRO 1d
Hello.
With pleasure I look at this picture.
Congratulations E X P L O R E !!!
Greetings from Warsaw.

the_trace 1d
wow!

Ger A 1d
Great shot I feel bad for that Vole

Daniel PRO 1d
Great shot and congratulations for Explore!

Anne Elliott PRO 1d
Many thanks, everyone, for your visits, comments and faves! Much appreciated.

JanCap3 PRO 1d
Very nice!! Congrats on EXPLORE.

Via Today's Explore at #220 on Fluidr

Qisheng Huo PRO 1d
Congratulations on Explore.
Wonderful shot! Nice bird!

Sue Cro PRO 21h
Congrats on explore Anne!

Wendy Minto 21h
Please share your beautiful photo in:
Aardvark To Zyzzyva
Close up of ringtailed lemar 2. Coombe Martin Wildlife Park. 29th July 2012

peter vogel PRO 20h
Wonderful captured. It is the perfect moment for me.
Congratulations on the Explore
This excellent photo can also be found in one of my galleries!

Via Today's Explore at #220 on Fluidr

Matrix 18h
cngratulazioni bella cattura --ciao--

Dave Curtis PRO 15h
Amazing capture!

Herb PRO 14h
Congratulations on Explore !

LeapFrog (Art) 13h
It always amazes me the size of prey that Raptors are able to capture ... the largest a Red-tailed Hawk got was an Adult Mallard ... and the much smaller Cooper's Hawk, a Pigeon ... one cannot under-estimate their full power!!

An outstanding shot of this one with its prey, Anne ... exceptional details and clarity ... very nicely taken and presented too!!

Haha ... looks like you are going up to +17-18C in Calgary today ... we were at -11C last night ... this has been the craziest February I have ever seen ... warm-cold-warm-cold ... incredible quick changes in temperatures ... I have to keep a light Winter coat on hand along with my bone-chilling Winter parka handy too ... it is not fun in the park monitoring Swans at -20 to -30C wind chills ... LOL!! Enjoy your heat-wave!!

Monteregina (Nicole) 9h
A terrific photo, Anne!
Congrats on Explore!

9 years ago. Edited 9 years ago.

Pam J ^club

This is simply stunning Anne

Admired in ~ I ♥ Nature

As to things continuing .... please do go read the good post by the Ip team

www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4491426

9 years ago.

Anne Elliott ^club has replied to Pam J ^club

Thanks so much, Pam. Yes, I did check the ip Team's most recent post yesterday and the fact that Audrey has been hired did sound very promising : )

9 years ago.

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Northern Pygmy-owl, one year ago

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