Successful hunting

Today, 25 May 2016, my birthday started off with my computer installing Windows 10 to replace my Windows 7! This happened while I was away from my computer, having a very late supper last night. No idea how it was able to do THAT without my permission! (Later: I now see that this is an automatic update, free until 29 July 2016). I eventually managed to restore my computer to how it was with Windows 7. Talk about panic! Once that was done, I immediately got yet another Blue Screen of Death! I stayed up all night, finally getting to bed about 7:00 this morning (for three hours' sleep), backing up the last few months' worth of photos (many thousands) and various odds and ends to an external drive. I was so hoping I wouldn't wake up to find Windows 10 installed again.. I wanted to find out a few things before even thinking about Windows 10, such as will all one's e-mails be saved if one changes to Windows 10? Also, do My Pictures photo folders remain the same?? I have visions of all my photos disappearing : ( So much for getting out for the day on my birthday day, lol! However, I did have a lovely day out on 22nd May, with my daughter, so I'm very lucky.

In connection with this, Flickr member, Brent Michael, added a very helpful comment under my next image (old church with fenceline). I will post his words here, in case anyone else had the same concerns as myself:

"Just happened to me yesterday as well. I had stopped 10 from updating a couple times before, but I let it go this time. Everything was still there once the update was complete. All my pictures, Lightroom, etc. My browser still had all my bookmarks, my documents were all there. and yes, all my emails were still there as well. All my folders in Lightroom and Windows were just as they were before. Windows 10 works differently so like with all software updates you have to relearn how to do certain things, which isn't as easy as it was 30 years ago! But I am still unhappy that Windows did this on its own without my permission as well. That's not cool! Good luck with yours!" Thanks so much, Brent - all good info to know.

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UPDATE on the FLIPLIFE website that I discovered recently was displaying thousands of our 'stolen' images (mine are all copyright protected, too) and displaying them for free download (including original size) to anyone who wanted them. Something made me check Google again last night and I was unable to go directly to their website. It now works through an itunes app, which you have to download. As a comment on the Help Forum says: "The video on the Fliplife for apps site is soooo nice, laying out all the thousands of..... stolen photos." Flickr staff are looking into this, again - thanks for the very quick response and action!

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The three photos posted today (about 11:30 am?) were grabbed last night while I was going through endless folders of photos. This one was taken back on 28 February 2016. Not a good quality image, but I thought it gives an idea of what we sometimes see a Great Gray Owl do. It all happened so fast and I wasn't expecting this owl to suddenly swoop down this close to us. Mind you, EXIF data gives Focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm, as my camera had been fully zoomed for very distant shots. You can't see the little Meadow Vole in this image, but a previously posted photo, taken a few seconds after this one, shows the Vole in the owl's beak. So many of these little Voles give up their lives to feeding animals higher up on the food chain.

My alarm clocks were set for 5:30 that morning, 28 February 2016, and I was full of hope that for once, I would actually get out of the house good and early. I have such a problem getting myself out very early when I go off for a drive by myself. I think it was something like 8:30 am by the time I dragged myself off the computer and out the front door. To my horror, I discovered that my car door locks had frozen shut and my car was totally covered in a thick layer of extremely stubborn ice, that took me a long time to remove. Half an hour or so later, I was finally ready to start on my trip NW of the city.

It had been quite a long time since I saw my last Great Gray Owl. Some of my most recent sightings had been one that was in Fish Creek Park in Calgary for a while and my last photos of it were taken on 18 February 2014. There was also a Great Gray at Griffith Woods, Calgary, and some of my photos were taken on 10 February 2014. Saw another owl on our May Species Count out of the city on 25 May 2014. Many of my 'best' sightings and photos of Great Grays were taken NW of Calgary, the last dates being 28 March 2013 and 5 May 2013. So, after 25 May 2014 .... nothing! Seeing one four days ago was such a thrill. No matter how many times I see one of these owls and no matter how many hundreds/thousands of photos I've taken, each owl is as exciting as the very first.

"Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_owl

When I first reached my approximate destination, I could see two or three cars way down the road, pulled over at the edge of the road. Often a good sign : ) Sure enough, friends had found an owl, It was on a distant barbed-wire fence post at first, then dove into the snow to try and catch a Meadow Vole. It then flew off into the trees with it and didn't return.

After a while, I drove some of the other roads in the area and later drove back to where the owl had been seen. Amazingly, assuming it was the same individual, it was in a distant tree, from where it hunted, moving to a different tree each time it made an unsuccesful dive. Eventually, it did catch a Vole. I left after a while, feeling that it was time to leave the owl 'in peace', and also knowing it was time for me to make the long drive home - approximately 246 km round trip. The excitement plus the long drive (on less than three hours' sleep) totally wore me out and I felt so tired the next day.

A good thing I went when I did, as we had fog, a bit of snow, hoarfrost and very slick roads overnight till the following afternoon. There were 234 reported accidents in the city during those hours, none with life-threatening injuries, thankfully.