One of three Snowy Owls today

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Finally managed to edit and upload three photos from today, after having to turn off and restart my computer half a dozen times this evening. A total of about 7 hours of driving east and northeast of the city resulted in three lucky sightings, with all three owls perched high on top of ugly utility poles. However, I will take anything I can get.

The first time I drove east to look for Snowy Owls was on 5 January, which turned out to be a day of dreadul, dense fog. I quickly gave up on the idea of searching for these beautiful Snowies that day. Today, the sun was shining, so I reckoned I would try again. Not much snow to be seen in the fields - sort of a patchwork of stubble and snow, which would make finding distant owls rather difficult. I like my Snowies close, ha, so I tend not to search the fields, keeping my eyes on the road instead.

The first two owls were on the same road, quite a distance apart. Couldn't believe my luck! Once I was back on a main road, I suddenly decided to take one of the back roads and was amazed to come across a third Snowy Owl. This one was skittish and took flight when I was stopped way, way down the road. The first owl simply stayed put on its insulator. The second owl stayed for a while, but then suddenly spotted movement way across the field. Off it flew and I could see it swoop down and then land on a distant fence post. From several highly zoomed-in photos, I could see strands of dried grass in its talons and it started preening, presumably after catching and eating some poor little Meadow Vole.