A photographer's nightmare

The open eyes of an owl tend to give it away, no matter how well the rest of the bird might be camouflaged. Rather a messy, cluttered photo, but I think it gives an idea of how we sometimes see this bird.

It had been almost four years since many of us were fortunate enough to make visits to a family of Northern Hawk Owls, NW of Calgary. I was so thrilled to see this adult two days ago, 8 February 2016, again NW of the city. It's a one and a half hour drive for me to get there, so not a drive I care to do very often - roughly 220 km round trip. Great to see a few familiar faces up there, too : )

It was like a spring day that day, sunny, pleasant and not cold. I really wanted to get over there before we get our next snowfall and it seemed a perfect day to go. There were three or four cars parked at the side of the road when I arrived at the area and everyone let me know that the owl had been close to the road just before I arrived, but had now disappeared way across a huge field. "You just missed it!" - never words one wants to hear, lol! However, I was assured it would be back - and that is what happened.

"The type of prey the Hawk-Owl catches will determine its eating strategy. For mammalian prey the ritual is generally the same: the Northern Hawk-Owl will eviscerate its prey, eats the head first (especially for prey like the red squirrel, whose head is fairly large), and then—when tackling larger prey—it will eat the organs and cache the remains; with smaller prey, the owl will simply swallow the body whole."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hawk-Owl

"The Northern Hawk Owl can detect prey by sight at a distance of up to 800 meters (half a mile). Though it is thought to detect prey primarily by sight, the Northern Hawk Owl can find and seize prey under 30 cm (1 foot) of snow." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_hawk_owl/lifehistory