Winter on the prairies

Well, today, 20 January 2017, is certainly an historic day, not just for the US, but for the whole world! I watched every moment of the US Presidential Inauguration, until the luncheon - and then posted my photos for today : ) I was very impressed with everything I saw, especially the classy way in which President Donald Trump and Former President Barak Obama dealt with each other. I wish the new President all the best in his endeavours for the American people, and definitely wish the highly popular Obama family all the very best in their new life. Though I am Canadian, I will miss the Obamas, who set such an inspirational example of love of family and each other. A truly delightful family. Good luck, everyone!

On 3 January 2017, on the spur of the moment, I decided to drive out of the city and see if I could find a Snowy Owl or possibly even a Short-eared Owl. I had no idea what the winter roads would be like and quickly found out that on the main highway south, there was enough snow left on the road for much of the drive to hide the lines showing the different lanes - something that I never like. Once I reached the area I wanted to start looking, each side road looked too snow-covered for my liking, so I avoided most of them - seeing nothing but a barn and a shed or two.

I had seen and photographed the barn in this photo before and I had also recently seen a photo of it with a Great Horned Owl perched on it, posted by a friend. I had not set out to drive quite this far, as Snowy Owls were what I had really wanted to search for. Also, experience told me that just because an owl is seen in a place by one person, it doesn't mean that the owl will be there again on a different day. I was certainly lucky this time! The barn is quite a distance from the road and from that far away, to anyone driving by, the owl would look just like a piece of wood sticking up.

"With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id