Wednesday, February 8, 2012

February 7, 2012 More Wolfe and Amherst Island birding


A male Snowy Owl sits on the only available patch of ice in the area.  

It was interesting watching this individual from the roadside.  It sat for a while and then began to waddle across the ice.  

Over 40 + years of birding this was the first time i'd observed a Snowy Owl actually walking. Most times you encounter them on fence posts, Telephone poles, barns, hay bails, but always just sitting and looking. 

As we watched it waddling it reminded my more of a penguin than an owl.  

The owl finally took flight but only flew a short distance and landed.  It stayed there for another hour . 

On Amherst Island we located 2 Snowy Owls at the east end of the island.

This juvenile  female Snowy Owl was well marked. 

A Snowy Owl on ice! 

3 comments:

Anup Sadi said...

What a fantastic snowy owl.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bruce,

Lovely photos of the owls. I like the one on the fence post in particular....the yellow eyes are amazing.

Best,
Gillian M.

Charles Hastings said...

Great shots of this amazing bird. I was lucky enough to visit Amherst in early December and got a few nice shots of a snowy on the KFN propery.
Those shots of the owl walking are excellent. Must have been fun to watch.
BTW: Great blog
Cheers,
Charlie Hastings, a KFN member.