Shooting in the rain

With the IPERNITY website shutting down at the end of January 2017, people are looking at alternative websites for posting their images. A lot of Flickr people moved over to ipernity, especially since May 2013, many of them leaving Flickr completely. I have exactly the same photostream on ipernity as on Flickr (i.e. 12,659 photos) and I do like the ipernity layout and use. Basically, I only use it as another place to store my photos and descriptions, as I just don't have time to comment, etc. Of course, I have my photos backed up on external hard drives, so it is really all the descriptions that I want to back up at yet another place. Far, far too time-consuming to post more than a handful of my photos elsewhere, and I have to admit I am getting REALLY fed up of having to spend so much precious time. Quite a few people are suggesting the 23hq website, so I thought I would take a look at it this afternoon. Just in case anyone from ipernity (or Flickr) is wondering what 23hq layout looks like, I'm adding a link to my newly created photostream there - only 50-60 photos (so far?). Sorry, but of all the websites I have checked out over the last few years, I still reckon Flickr is the best - despite the fact that there have been two sudden major loss of views in Stats (for me, at least, plus some others) since May 2016, which I don't understand. Too obvious to be a coincidence, and I'm not impressed!

www.23hq.com/annkelliott

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Our temperature this morning, 6 December 2016, is -20C (windchill -33C!!!!!). I had thought about going on a walk with friends, as I missed the walk last week, but the forecast was for mainly cloud, so I decided not to go. Of course, the sun is shining nicely, sigh, Just as well I didn't go, with a windchill of -33C.

No matter how many times I see one of these owls and no matter how many hundreds/thousands of photos I've taken of them, each owl is as exciting as the very first. This owl was seen on 30 May 2016, SW of the city. I'm not getting the time to get out looking for owls, so no Snowy Owls, Short-eared Owls or Great Grays for quite a while now, so I thought I would at least post a photo of one today.

On this particular day, I decided that for once, I would go out in an evening to look for one of these magnificent birds of prey. Unfortunately, heavy black clouds were already starting to build, with patches of blue sky still showing. Once I hit the main highway, the rain started and continued till I got back home. I was determined to go and check out the various places where I had seen these owls just a few years ago. The two separate owls I found were not far from previous sightings - one along the main road and the other was flying over a distant field. Both were focused on hunting. The first owl flew from post to post, searching for prey. Not a place I particularly wanted to stop, as a number of cars did drive by - had my blinkers turned on. Almost the whole time, I was sitting in my car, with rain pouring in through the open passenger window - but, hey, it's for an OWL! I did get out for maybe three or so minutes, as I know from too much experience that many shots taken from inside my car don't come out. Must have looked rather silly, standing in the rain, to people going by, lol.

Feeling so happy, I decided to drive again along a different area, just to check one last time before going home. That's when I noticed a large bird way off in the distance, flying over a field. I was amazed when it eventually flew to a tree within camera reach and then even more surprised when it flew to a fairly close fence post, which is when I took this shot. Fully zoomed, Focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm. The owls looked rather wet and a little wind-blown in most of my photos, but, needless to say, I went home feeling thrilled to bits. I don't remember ever seeing an owl shake the rain off its feathers just like a dog shakes off water, but that is what this one did.

"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