I'm watching you

From my archives, a beautiful Great Horned Owl seen at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, on 16 May 2009. I had a different owl of this species sit on my hand - the most amazing feeling! I was also lucky enough to hold a tiny Burrowing Owl, and a Barn Owl on a different visit. It's so much fun photographing the birds at this Centre, but of course there is nothing like photographing them in the wild. We are very fortunate to have so many Great Horned Owls in Calgary, LOL! No wonder it was chosen as the Provincial Bird.

This Centre is "Canada’s largest birds of prey facility. Situated on a 70-acre wetland area site, the centre is a celebration of nature featuring the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls of Alberta. Throughout the site and along the pathways, a number of birds of prey are sitting on their perches only feet away from visitors. These birds are all in various stages of training and receive lots of exercise in the daily flying programs. At the centre, they have one of North America's largest captive breeding populations for the endangered Burrowing Owl."

This morning, 10 March 2014, the temperature is 1C, and it looks like wet flurries could be expected for later this afternoon and scattered flurries this evening. Yesterday's wonderfully mild weather melted a fair bit of our accumulated snow.