Meadow Vole for a late lunch

This photo was taken on 30 January 2017, when this Northern Hawk Owl flew down to the field across the road from where we were standing, caught a little Meadow Vole, and then flew up into the nearest tree. You can tell by the colour of the sky that the weather was not good for taking photos.

The first time I saw the owl in this photo was on 29 January 2017. In the few days after that, I did call in very briefly maybe three other times, once just for 10 minutes. The first day was by far the best day, as the owl perched on a few fence posts, nicely out in the open. The other times, it has been high up in one tree or another, or perched high up on top of a utility pole next to an insulator. Haven't been back in about three weeks, I think. The road is dangerous for stopping and apparently there have been too many people gathering on some days.

"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