Birding the prairies in winter can be a tricky thing. You have to wait until the weather conditions are right – no ice on the roads, no blowing snow, no minus 30C temperatures – and you have to head out in the dark. The chance of a snowy owl sighting is one of the few things that will pry me from my nice, comfy bed at 6:00 am in the winter.
A birdwatching friend (bloody morning person) and I headed out last week to look for snowys. We’ve done this prairie winter drive before, and came home with a great number of sightings, including 11 snowy owls. Obviously, we used up a generous portion of our birding luck that time.
Much of this trip, it was like we were the only people left after the apocalypse. Mile after mile of snow-covered fields, no traffic and more importantly, no birds. We did manage to see 3 snowy owls, but they were few and far between. Not only were they hard to find, they were distinctly uncooperative on the picture front. Too far away for my camera, flying as soon as we stopped, whipping their heads back and forth so I ended up with fuzzy pictures…
We also saw a couple of golden eagles and a prairie falcon, who all flew the instant we slowed down and I picked up my camera. Black-billed magpies and ravens were very numerous, and we spotted a flock of bohemian waxwings way out there in the prairie, which was a surprise. Snow buntings were everywhere, but I didn’t even attempt to get a picture of these hyperactive little birds.
The lone coyote we saw in our day-long drive took off at a fast lope as soon as he saw us. You couldn’t blame the poor canid – he probably associates any slow-moving vehicle with a gunshot. Small herds of mule deer were scattered all over the place, although we did see one big group of nearly 40 animals.
As any birder knows, some days the birding gods are with you, and some days they’re not. Or maybe we’ve just been spoiled with our past prairie drives.
Still, I figure even a fuzzy snowy owl picture is better than none!
