Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2016February26

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.