This is a female Barred Owl on Vancouver Island in Colliery Dam Park. A fellow near Nanaimo told me I might find this bird here. When I arrived, I found several people enjoying the park, walking about with their dogs untethered. In the distance I could hear a pacific wren that I really wanted to see and photograph, and I grew weary that the dogs and pedestrians would scare it away.
Suddenly, I noticed a lump five yards up in a conifer. I raised my binoculars and saw this beauty. She had been roosting there through all the bustle. I gazed and snapped away for more than two hours. I have heard The Who-cooks-for-you call of the barred owl several times, but this evening I heard it front and center, and it is very loud. She was calling her young, three juveniles who soon appeared as she led them out on the evenings hunt. I found the Pacific wren the next day.
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I went to Sax-Sim Bog during the last week in December, 2018, hoping to find a Great Gray. After a couple days of snow and no GGOs, sun was in the forecast, so I gave it one more shot on a cold Saturday morning. A couple days before, I bumped into two photographers and Flickr members at the hotel we were all staying at in Duluth. That Saturday morning, we stood in a giant state of disbelief at the generosity and patience of this majestic owl of the Boreal Forest as he gave us nearly a half-hour in ten below zero temperatures, posing in three distinct positions. All three of us got nearly identical shots.
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This was the second position the Great Gray Owl gave me.
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After this GGO blessed Brian Jones, Dave Zimmerman, and me with two unique positions and backdrops, Mr. Gray landed on this perch and provided my favorite image of that magical morning.
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I was looking for Western Screech Owls, and a few birders told me to go to the San Pedro House near Sierra Vista, AZ. I watched this tree cavity for a half hour when I decided to point my camera and get it in focus just in case of some activity. As I focused, these two juveniles took a peak out at the world.
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