Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Nyctea scandiaca

I always take close-ups of everything, but finally I remembered to take a photo of a "whole" owl, LOL! This beautiful Snowy Owl has only one eye, which is sad and is the reason its home is the Calgary Zoo. Did I ever miss the chance for a good photo yesterday? When I was in this aviary, the other Snowy Owl suddenly flew from the far end straight towards me. I stood there wondering if it was going to fly at me or hopefully fly right over my head (which is what it fortunately did). I forgot to try and get a photo of a Snowy in flight!

Here is Mama Snowy Owl, in her enclosure near the Tigers at the Calgary Zoo. She had three young ones in 2006, which stayed in the enclosure with the two adults until they were sent to other zoos quite recently. Hopefully, this pair will breed again this year and successfully produce some little owlets. Haven't been lucky enough to see a Snowy Owl in the wild this winter - yet.

This beautiful Snowy Owl lives in one of the two Aviaries in the Canadian Wilds area at the Calgary Zoo, along with the Great Gray Owls. I'm not sure if it is a female or a juvenile - both have this heavy brown barring on their feathers. I seem to remember being told that it is an injured bird (it arrived fairly recently), and it does appear to have only one eye. On the other hand, that's what I thought about one of last year's young ones, because every photo I took of it was with only one eye. Then suddenly, one day, I made a visit and all the owls in the small enclosure had two eyes. Thought I'd post a photo taken from the back view, as the feathers really are very beautiful. Actually, it had come running (a sight to behold!) to within just a few feet of me and stayed there for a while, nothing between it and me. How I LOVE this feeling! Yes, hopefully the Snowy Owls will appear just outside the city before too long - totally awesome to see in the wild.

I rather liked the way the sun just caught the side of this beautiful female Snowy Owl at the Calgary Zoo yesterday. Her eyes look slightly orange in this photo, but they really are bright yellow.

I was standing maybe six feet away from this beautiful Snowy Owl (female or juvenile) in the Canadian Wilds area of the Calgary Zoo. It was sitting near the edge of a bank about five feet high, near the edge of the path through the aviary. At first, a slight hiss came from that partly open beak - obviously a little warning to not invade its territory. Then the owl became used to my presence. I took a pile of photos with my new Panasonic FZ18 camera, too, but found that when I use flash with it, images come out darker than with my Canon S3 IS. Consequently, the eyes were barely yellow from the FZ18, which I didn't like, so I'm posting a photo from my Canon.

One of the Snowy Owls at the Calgary Zoo, seen in the aviary that is also home to Great Gray Owls and Barred Owls.

Again, not as sharp as I would have liked and I much prefer owl shots where you can see the big, yellow eyes. This one did make me chuckle, though, so I had to post it. After all, how often do YOU see inside an owl's mouth?? This female Snowy Owl is at the Calgary Zoo - they are just breath-taking when seen in the wild.

This is the female Snowy Owl at the Calgary Zoo. Up until fairly recently, she and "Dad" had their three youngsters from last year in the enclosure with them. Now, the three young ones are no longer there - I must find out what has happened with them. Maybe they are hoping that next year, this pair of Owls will breed again. They were not allowed to hatch and raise any new young ones this year.

The Snowy Owls at the Calgary Zoo were almost impossible to photograph today, hiding behind the tall grass and Rhubarb plant! Just managed to get a quick shot of the male.

This is the adult male Snowy Owl at the Calgary Zoo. Spent almost five hours there this afternoon. Another bird I was happy to photograph was a Black-crowned night-heron. Like the Snowy Owl, we also get these night-herons in the wild.

Another angle on this beautiful Snowy Owl at the Calgary Zoo. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the three young ones from last year.

Not sure if the Snowy Owl in the foreground is the female or one of last year's young. I just can't tell any more. Dad is in the background and is the smallest in the family of five. After all the rain we've had this month, grass everywhere (at the Zoo and in the parks and natural areas of the city), has grown so tall. Not very easy to get a decent photo of these owls, as blades of grass seem to always get in the way. I don't know if Snowy Owls eat Rhubarb, but there is a giant patch of this in their enclosure!

A full view of this Snowy Owl from the Calgary Zoo. Not sure if it is the adult female or one of her three youngsters from last year. I suspect it could be Mom.

One of the beautiful Snowy Owls at the Calgary Zoo. Not sure if this is the adult female or one of the three young ones from last year. I head for these as soon as I get inside the Zoo grounds! Would rather it was a wild one, but these captive ones are all I can get to, other than on a very rare occasion. Happy Feathery Friday, everyone! And Happy Easter, too!

Now this good-looking guy is in his element in the snow. This male Snowy Owl lives at the Calgary Zoo with his mate and their three young ones from last year.

One of the Snowy Owls at the Calgary Zoo - not sure if this is the adult female or one of the young ones from last year. Love those white feathered feet.

This is a female Snowy Owl (adult males are pure white but females have this heavy, dark brown barring). My friend found it for us east of Calgary, in the Langdon area, yesterday afternoon, along with four Short-eared Owls a little further on. I feel rather bad, as I didn't do the greatest job of photographing this owl after all the trouble my friend went to in finding it (light was a little dim for my point-and-shoot, I suspect). They are such spectacular birds and they just take your breath away! This photo is almost identical to photos taken by other people. Almost always sitting on one of these poles! My photo when the owl was looking straight at us came out a little blurred, so I thought I'd post this less spectacular pose but at least it's a little more pleasant on the eyes! The same friend found a beautiful, pure white male Snowy Owl last winter and I posted a photo of that one a while ago.

Look at those talons! She really is a magnificent bird! Seen at the Calgary Zoo - more recently, she became Proud Mama to three owlets! The highest this photo got in Explore was #69 on 6th December 2006.