Why they are hard to find : )

A group of nine of us took part in the town of High River's Christmas Bird Count, half an hour's drive south of Calgary, two days ago, 17 December 2013. As far as owls go, we were so lucky to find 5 Great Horned Owls, 2 Long-eared Owls and 2 Short-eared Owls. We had been hoping to find a Snowy Owl, too, like on last year's Count, but we were out of luck this time. The two Short-eared Owls were sitting facing each other in the long, dry grasses not far from the edge of the road. I could just grab a couple of shots of each Owl from my seat in the back of the second car - not good photos, but at least you can get an idea of what we saw.

An article that discusses the importance of Bird Preservation and why Bird Counts are important:

birding.about.com/od/birdconservation/a/importconserve.htm