OWLS!

Well, this blog never really took off, but here goes nothing. This winter season has been great for seeing owls locally, both common and uncommon. Early December the Snowy Owls started to show up and have been pretty frequent locally if you know where to look. Saw-whet and Long-eared have also been showing in numbers lately as well. Some places are being overrun with over zealous photographers, but that is nothing new... We have had two highlight owls this season so far, the first being a Burrowing Owl which is rare for the entire province and the second is a Boreal Owl that showed up close to Hamilton (in the HSA!) which is very uncommon. I was fortunate to go and see both these owls. I am still waiting to find the elusive Barn Owl to complete my Ontario Owl list.

Snowy Owl - sitting about 20ft from the Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owl - in the GTA

Stayed well back as to not flush the owl. It would be an easy meal for the Snowy close by. 

Boreal Owl - an HSA first for me. Asleep the entire time I was able to view it.

Long-eared Owl - HSA

Northern Saw-whet Owl (taken with my phone through binoculars)