When you look up the word ‘disdain’ in the dictionary, there should be an owl picture beside it. It means “the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of one’s consideration or respect; contempt,” which is exactly the feeling I get every time an owl looks at me. How do …
Spectacular Snowy Owls are on the move! The owls are irrupting well south of their usual winter range in Canada, with reports as far south as Kansas. To read more about the phenomenon in eBird, select this link. If you don’t see a Snowy Owl in your birding ventures, you can …
How did I possibly survive without Twitter? Yes, some days are more interesting on there than others, but every once in a while you get notice of some absolutely SPECTACULAR blog posts. Today I was introduced to The Spruce Blog, and this unbelievably astonishing collection of Great Grey owl photos, …
A team of field researchers, including Calgary Zoo Director Dr. Jake Veasey, released 84 captive-bred burrowing owls into artificial burrows in the Kamloops/Merritt region of British Columbia in mid-April. The Calgary Zoo joined the burrowing owl project in 2004, and the research team provides assistance assessing owls, pairing, determining release …
It’s so nice to have birding friends. Last Saturday, my husband and I were sitting at home wondering which direction to go looking for birds. Our March weather is extremely fickle, so we were gauging our chances of heading out to the mountains when the phone rang. A friend had …
I am beginning to think my yard is emitting some kind of weird force field, resulting in some very strange bird encounters – daily owl visits, eastern birds, hundreds of waxwings… And that’s just the last few weeks. On one supremely frigid day last week, I noticed one of my …
I rarely apply human emotions to wildlife, but I simply couldn’t resist for this sequence. Buster spent a half an hour watching the squirrel activity, and really gave the famous owl-swivel neck a workout!
I was making pumpkin walnut muffins yesterday when I looked out the window and discovered I had more than the usual number of big corvids out there. Four ravens and five black-billed magpies, to be exact, were quietly (?) perched on one of my spruce trees. Grabbing my camera and bins, I …
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 …