Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: meal

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.

"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 past few weeks, photographers have seen this bird catch numerous Voles, including this unlucky little one, seen on 23 February 2015. 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.

"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 past three or so weeks, photographers have seen this bird catch several, including this unlucky little rodent, seen on 14 January 2015. This tiny owl has been very tolerant of the crowds of people with their giant, noisy cameras, but hopefully the number of people has already started to get smaller. I haven't been down to the park for six days now, so I don't even know if the owl is still being seen, at least in the same area. I'm posting late today (around noon, I think it was) - got to bed so late last night/this morning and needed to sleep until I woke up without any alarms being set.

HAPPY EARTH DAY, everyone! I'm so glad to know so many people who do care greatly about our planet! Rather a messy shot, but it's not everyday that one gets the chance for a photo like this, ha. Another shot from March 21st, when several of us had an amazing time watching this Northern Hawk Owl, NW of Cochrane.