While the owls around Skagit County haven't been that plentiful it's well-known in the birding community that the owls can be reliably seen at Boundary Bay in British Columbia, Canada. For us it's about an 80-mile trip... 65 to the border and another 10-12 beyond. So Saturday morning, after our usual communal breakfast a friend and I headed north to photograph the owls. Our start was with some reservations because it was raining on us slightly. However we pushed on, hoping that the weather would be better at our destination.
When we arrived we were treated to the sight of a couple of hundred people lined up along the dike to view the owls. My lens is a Nikon 200-400mm but many of the photographers had lenses that made mine look positively puny... and I'm not exaggerating! It didn't matter... we all obtained our photos. We managed to last about 45-minutes to an hour in the cold conditions trying to protect our shutter fingers from the cold.
After awhile we decided that the owls weren't going to move, or if they did it could be a long time before they did so we headed back. I guess I took something over 60 photos and saved most of them since you just don't get this opportunity very often. So without further explanation, here are some photos of Snowy owls...
This was our most photogenic owl, one of the closest and most active. At one point it hopped (with wings spread) from the top of this log to a position lower down. It looked like it might take to flight but never did while we were there.
The owls' favorite area to preen seemed to be their feet. After a little preening they would suddenly look up with an intense stare. These owls are made for cold weather... note the feathers on the owl's feet!
You should be able to click on any of these images and the image will be enlarged to show detail. Happy viewing!
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