Down by the river on a frosty morning

Yesterday, 14 January 2017, this was the sight to greet me when I drove to Fish Creek Park to meet with others to go east of the city, looking for birds. There was far more dense mist rising from the river than appears in this photo. Everywhere looked so pretty, and this frost-covered bush was a delight to see.

I think there were about 8 cars in convoy, as we headed eastward, out of the city. For much of the day, birding was extremely slow, especially as we were not seeing any owls : ) As the day wore on, several cars returned to the city.

The first owl to be seen was a Great Horned Owl, perched in a row of trees alongside the road. It was so well hidden by a tangle of thin twigs and branches, making it impossible to photograph.

Eventually, we saw our first Snowy Owl at 2:30 pm, perched on a very distant fencepost. A second Snowy was seen 15 to 20 minutes later, again very, very distant. Then, shortly before the trip ended, the friends in the car in which I was travelling, decided to go back to a certain area to see if we could see any Short-eared Owls. On the way there, we spotted another Snowy Owl, on a power pole way, way down the road. Managed to get a quick couple of very distant shots before it flew off to hunt. I had found no Snowy Owls or Short-eared Owls the previous afternoon, when I had gone there on my own. This time, we spotted two Short-eared Owls, perched far, far away along a fence line. Useless for photos, though.

Thanks so much for driving the whole day, Carolyn - greatly appreciated by all of us! So glad you wanted to stay a bit longer than the actual trip, as we had a few lucky sightings, even if they were all very distant. A beautiful, sunny day to be out, too, and thankfully the deep-freeze had just ended.

Thanks so much, Terry, for organizing this trip! It always makes for a very enjoyable day out.