Short-eared Owl – CrazyM Bird & Nature Photography

Boundary Bay Variety

This afternoons walk was to Boundary Bay. The photo opportunities started before I even parked at the foot of 72 St.

A Rough-legged Hawk was in a tree next to the road. This shot was taken out of the car window. After parking I noted it was still there and started walking back that way, but it moved off before I got there.

There were lots of sparrows around at the foot of 72 St. when I started my walk, but nothing out of the ordinary.

There were even a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets among them.

As I continued east along the dyke I came across a large group of White-crowned Sparrows.

While several of them provided great photo opportunities,

… I did not locate any American Tree Sparrows which I was hoping to see.

As one would expect at this time of the year in the bay area, there was no shortage of Bald Eagles.

There were also a few Short-eared Owls active over the marsh.

The owls seemed to be the only thing any of the other photographers out there were interested in. Makes me wonder at times if they aware of the variety of birds that can be seen in this area.

Barn + Short-eared Owls

Headed out to Boundary Bay on a cool and overcast afternoon. On arriving there were several other photographers watching some Short-eared Owls close to 72 St. Still wanting to find some wintering sparrows I continued east beyond them, but did not get too far before this Short-eared Owl landed on a fence post beside me.

While scanning the fields it started vocalizing.

Then prepared to take flight again.

Kind of hard to ignore them when they are providing opportunities like this.

The flight shots were taken as they were hunting over the golf course. After this diversion I continued east and spotted some activity in a crabapple.

This Purple Finch was busy feasting on the berries. Further along while watching some sparrows,

… I was pleasantly surprised when this Barn Owl flew in landing briefly.

It then moved a short distance away to another stump while continuing to scan the marsh,

… and then flew off over the tall grass on the north side of the dyke. The Barn Owl was a definite bonus for today’s walk.

Short-eared + Snowy Owl

It was a nice sunny afternoon when I started my walk at Boundary Bay. As with my last visit here, I was going to look for wintering sparrows. Not long after starting,

… this male Northern Harrier did a close fly by. On the sparrow front as I progressed east along the dyke I was only finding the usual suspects.

Like this White-crowned Sparrow,

… and Song Sparrow. With clouds moving in and the sun starting to set, it was time to start heading back. While adjacent to the golf course,

… I came across this Short-eared Owl that had stopped to rest on a fence post. As it continued getting darker,

… I was pleasantly surprised to see this Snowy Owl roosting out in the marsh. One has been seen here off and on for a couple of weeks now. The first one I saw this winter was also about two weeks ago at Reifel way out in the west marsh.