Snow Buntings, Snowy Owl Prowl 2019

Four of these photos were taken on Saturday, 23 February 2019, during the annual Snowy Owl Prowl, east of the city. I was so tempted to cancel when the forecast was for bitterly cold and snowy weather, with a wind that made it feel much colder! Amazingly, the snow stopped just before it was time for me to leave home that morning, but the frigid weather stayed with us all day.

We managed to find five Snowy Owls, but this was the only remotely close one that I got a sharp enough photo of. My other photos, taken from inside the car in which I was travelling, from the far side, were totally blurry. This so often happens when I take photos from inside a vehicle. The last owl we saw was actually going to be on my side of the road when we did a U-turn and headed back, which would have been wonderful, but for some reason, we drove straight past, leaving everyone else to photograph it! Of course, it was great to see these owls, but photo-wise, very disappointing. It was definitely a Snow Bunting day, though! An estimated 6,000 of them in total. They are so beautiful when seen in flight. The car in which I was riding was the leading car, and we missed the Horned Larks and Gray Partridge. I have added a previousy posted photo of a single Snow Bunting, taken in 2011, in a comment box below.

"21 brave participants ventured out on a very cold and windy day to trek east of Calgary to find Snowy Owls. Even with the bitterly cold conditions, the birds did not disappoint. We found 5 Snowy Owls throughout the day, but the highlight was seeing over 6000 snow buntings amongst 8 different flocks throughout the day. The largest flock we saw was about 1800 birds, which was a mixed flock with about 200 Horned Larks. The buntings must be migrating north! All and all a great day!

Saturday February 23, 2019
10am-4pm -17C, Wind N20-29KM/Hr
21 participants

1075 Canada Geese
12 Gray Partridge
90 Rock Pigeon
1 Great Horned Owl (being chased through trees by Ravens)
5 Snowy Owls - all males, 4 1st year, 1 adult
6 Black-billed Magpie
10 Common Raven
205 Horned Lark - 200 were in a mixed flock with Snow Buntings
40 Common Redpoll
6000 8 different flocks over the day; 1600, 1600, 400, 100, 300, 300, 1000, 1000

Melanie"