Snowy Owl

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.

Well the sun may have been shining, but the wind definitely added a cold edge to the afternoon. Windy conditions do not always help on the birding front either. Not having been there in a few weeks I headed out to Brunswick Point. The river was pretty choppy and not much out there in the way of waterfowl. A few other photographers mentioned there had been a very cooperative Short-eared Owl at the beginning of the trail, but it had since moved on. I carried on along the dyke and counted four Snowy Owls roosting further out in the marsh. On reaching a small stand of trees at the other end there was some song bird activity. Mostly Golden-crowned Sparrows and Spotted Towhees with a couple of Northern Flicker thrown in for good measure. At this point no real photo ops or anything out of the ordinary so I started making my way back. There were a few Northern Harrier active over the marsh, but no Short-eared Owls which struck me as a little odd. Then off in the distance I noticed a fellow photographer waiving at me. On arriving at his location there was one of the Snowy Owls perched on an old stump fairly close to the dyke.

He said it had flown in to the edge of the dyke and then back out to the marsh moving between the old stumps. I managed a couple of photos before a couple of dogs being walked off leash ran out there and flushed the owl. So between here and Boundary Bay there are still several Snowy Owls around.

Snowy & Rough-legged

Another great day and I managed to get to a couple of different spots. Not having much luck at the first, I ended the afternoon in Boundary Bay. Seeing the foot of 72 Street was quite busy, I made my way to 64 Street. From there I walked east along the dyke trail. It was looking pretty quiet here as well until I noticed a couple of family groups stopped and looking out into the marsh area. As I got closer I could see there were three Snowy Owls roosting out there.

One of the Snowy Owls was actually not too far off and provided a good photo op. Everyone was enjoying them from the dyke with nobody venturing out to get closer and disturbing them.

Another winter visitor that I have managed to see, but not photograph yet this year is the Rough-legged Hawk. Most of my sightings this winter have been from a distance and never really close enough for photos.

Late this afternoon that changed with this Rough-legged Hawk roosting atop a tree. A pleasant surprise to get this as I find they are usually quite skittish when people approach. A good end to the day’s outing.