Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: north of Cochrane

I've been so lucky that I've had two outings to see these rare to uncommon Northern Hawk Owls, north west of our city. A different friend took me with them and both times we were blessed with deep blue sky and sunshine. These owls are so fascinating and aren't fazed at all by humans. My photos are distant ones but cropped heavily : ). Their expressions are varied and rather amusing.

Have been feeling really unwell the last 7-10 days, so the very last thing I should have done was to drive to a new area by myself on a -20C day, LOL! I've battled a phobia of driving the last 31 years, so plucking up courage to do this drive meant a lot to me. Felt so good to have done it. Wonderfully, I bumped into a couple of friends who were already at the location, so there was someone to chat with while we stood and waited and waited and waited for this gorgeous Northern Hawk Owl to do something, ha, ha! They also very kindly brought back a cup of hot coffee for me when they drove into Cochrane for a quick break. We did see three of these owls along the stretch of road, but they were perched a long way away. Maybe they, too, were feeling the cold. The one above was in fact perched in a row of trees with masses of tangled branches, but I was lucky to just be able to shoot from the road, through a small gap. Greatly cropped, of course : ) Looks like it had had a fairly recent snack, judging by the colour of its beak. Takes about an hour and a quarter to drive here, north of the city. It was unbearably cold and I was still on the verge of shivering eight hours after getting home. As I said, not the wisest outing when sick : ) Can't wait to do it again, though, especially as our weather is supposed to warm up for a few days.

A couple of friends very kindly invited me to go with them today to see if we could find the Northern Hawk Owls. No sign of any of them. Another friend told us that he had just been talking with the owner of a house that is at that location, and apparently the owls have only been seen maybe twice in the last week. So, we are not sure what is going on. Anyway, I decided to upload this shot taken on 28th February - this little guy/gal was perched on top of this VERY tall pole, so had to crop : ) Kind of looks cute, puffed up against the cold. LOL, my first thought was that s/he looks as if s/he's sitting under one of those old Hair Salon hairdryers - no idea if they still use those things.

I still have other, unposted photos of this Northern Hawk Owl. This one is a little different, as the owl is perched on a fence. This was taken on the second outing, with a friend, to see these fascinating birds of prey. This owl species is 38-43 cm (15" to 16.9") in length and 80-90 cm (31.5" to 35.4") in width, and is rare to uncommon in Alberta.