Old and new on the prairies

A rural scene SE of Calgary, taken on 25 January 2014, when I spent an amazing day with friends Cathy and Terry, driving the backroads. You can see the eastern edge of the Canadian Rockies in the far distance. A full day of excitement and enjoyment that left me tired out, but so happy. I had been missing being out and taking photos and was feeling lethargic and extremely tired, so this invite was welcomed with open arms. The crazy weather soared to a balmy 11C, though a lot of the day was colder, with a strong wind! We were amazed at how bare some of the fields were.

Can you believe that we saw 16 (oops, I originally said 17) owls that day? SIXTEEN! I didn't photograph quite every single one, but my friends were able to let me know exactly how many of each owl we found, once they had gone through their photos and video. The final count turned out to be 8 Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. The closest Snowy Owl was seen when it was early evening and the light had gone, and my photos are all blurry. The other owls were little more than a tiny speck in the far, far distance, but I still managed to get some kind of shot of some of them (not fit to post!), using 48x zoom plus cropping. Perhaps I should add that maybe 15 of the owls that were seen would never have been seen by less experienced birders (and I include myself in that category!). My friends have brilliant eyes when it comes to spotting owls and anything else! Just left me shaking my head each time they found one! I'm not too bad at finding owls, but not at that distance!