Photo of the Week 2014-12-15

A chance meeting Saturday morning at the Tobermory Farmer's Market Christmas Sale led to some great intelligence for my wildlife photography. While there, I heard two people talking about the number of Snowy Owl's in the area. I interrupted the conversation, introduced myself and listened intently. Another person entered the conversation and the next thing you know I had a plan for Sunday morning.

I left the cottage in the dark before sunrise with the weather heavy.  The morning light was very dull making it necessary to bump up the ISO for decent exposure settings but I was treated to a sighting within minutes of reaching my intended location. A male Snowy was perched on a fencepost a hundred or so metres out in a field so I pulled the vehicle over, grabbed a few quick images, then sat back and poured some hot tea from my thermos to wait.

Eventually he moved on to a utility pole, across a field and then courteously perched on a dead tree stump making for a perfect environmental portrait setting. Fortunately, I was able to get relatively close access from a local dead-end county road and make a number of images, but still from a fair distance.

sitting pretty

I managed to see 2 other Snowy's in the same area, but distance and crappy light remained a challenge preventing me from making any better images.

I'm going to have fun getting to know these beauties this winter.

DJE