Great Gray Owl

Recently a great gray owl was spotted in our area, thanks to some of my birding friends, I was informed of its location. I went looking for it Thursday morning, and thankfully the person keeping me informed was also looking for the bird, without his help I would not have spotted it in a tree way down a farm fencerow. As we were admiring the owl, it took off and flew to a tree at the side of road near to us, eventually moved to other trees also nearby, and I managed to get some good pictures of it.

Eagles

Today was a nice sunny day, just above freezing, so we decided to take a walk out to the cottage. The snow is still deep, but with the recent thaw/refreeze it is crusted so hard that we can easily walk right over top. While we were at the lake I heard the red-shouldered hawk calling, he was circling over the pines and telling the world of his return. There was also one robin hopping about in the melted areas along the rockwalls, picking about for a meal. On the drive home I spotted a pair of bald eagles sitting in the trees of a narrow valley, and managed to get some pictures.

The wonderful thing about digital raw files is the ability to blow them up. In spite of the size of the birds and a 300mm lens, they were far enough away to make it difficult to get a good shot.