Yesterday's absolute treat - the size of your fist!

Such an awful quality image, taken in really bad light and in the woods, and close to being a black silhouette - but still so cute and precious. I rescued it the best I could, but thank goodness I have an album full of much better photos of Northern Pygmy-owls. It was, of course, amazing just to see this one yesterday, during a long walk in Fish Creek Park - longer than it should have been, due to our destination area being closed with yellow warning tape because there was a Black Bear in the area. Makes me smile, as I know Bears can't read and can walk, so who knows what part of the park it was in yesterday. I don't know how someone spotted this tiny owl when it was first seen, far away and through the trees. We took a few photos, feeling grateful to be looking at this tiny, fist or popcan-sized predator, and then, suddenly, it flew towards us and landed closer. If only the sun had been shining.

"The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny, but it’s a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white, with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes. They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help you find these unobtrusive owls, as can listening for their call, a high-pitched series of toots." From AllAboutBirds. They also love Meadow Voles.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/id

"This Northern Pygmy-Owl appears to have eyes in the back of its head. But why? One theory is that large false eyes may create the illusion that the owl is much bigger than its 6 and 3/4-inch size. A more current theory is that the false eyes help protect the pygmy-owl's true eyes. Small birds will mob this diurnal owl, even striking it, directing some attacks at its eyes. If the large false eyes can take the brunt of these attacks, little harm will come to the Pygmy-Owl's vulnerable true eyes." From birdnote.org.

birdnote.org/show/pygmy-owls-false-eyes

The last Northern Pygmy-owl that I saw (actually, two of them) was on 27 December 2016, after a group of us had finished a day of birding for the annual Audubon Sheep River/Priddis/Turner Valley Christmas Bird Count. Was able to get much better photos on that occasion.

I'm glad I went on yesterday's walk, as it snowed again last night and it is another dreary day today, 10 November 2017. The temperature is a balmy -1C.