Even though I managed internet projects at Honeywell for almost three decades … many times I DID NOT understand what made something popular. One year ago I posted this image (and a few others … see original post) which featured Snowy and Raven. For most of the past 12 months, views = nada. The video was watched, but not in any large numbers. Oh my, have the number of views increased. In the past week over 80k additional people have watched this video where the Snowy Owl and Raven have a short battle. Views are now over 104,000. (video link for email subscribers)

Images

It’s a few minutes after 8 am. Sunrise was at 7:45 am. I have already been out birding twice this morning (it’s 4F outside). If folks wonder how I capture beautiful images, it is with lots of research and legwork. Even if you don’t want to take photographs, successful birding requires research and time in the woods … often unsuccessful time.

This morning at 6:15 while working on my computer, I heard Hoot’s parents starting to sing. Believe it or not, I was sitting at my desk with the window open (remember it was 4F outside); I wanted to hear the owls if they starting some pre-dawn song. My thermals were already on, and within moments I was outside hiking dark trails … almost running. I knew that in a few weeks my Great Horned Owl couple would nest. Now is the time to learn their pine grove preference. I was home by 7 am with more knowledge.

My second outing of the morning was an attempt to learn where the new Snowy Owl featured in this post was roosting for the day (unsuccessful). By 7:30 am I was inspecting its afternoon territory in the hopes it might be hunting just before dawn, and then show me its daytime spot.

I hope you enjoy this “new Snowy Owl”. It is a beautiful immature male. I hope to spend some great time with it before the 1st of March.

Aborted Take-Off

The Evil Eye

The Moment of Sunset

The amazing experience yesterday was finding a flock of well over 500 Bohemian Waxwings. The light conditions were dark … thus no pictures, but if one drives to the end of Homestead Road about 1/2 way between Lester River (Duluth) and Two Harbors there is a huge thicket of buckthorn to your left on West Knife River Road. As long as the food source holds out the birds will stick around. Early morning is the best for viewing. While buckthorn is an invasive species, the birds don’t seem to mind.

Late yesterday afternoon I decided to look for Snowy Owls. About 30 minutes before sunset I spied the Snowy Owl documented in this post, but with less than ten minutes till sundown, I thought Snowy was not going to grant me anything but “perched images”. I decided to climb atop a nearby snowbank in order to get more on the level with the owl, and I then hoped …

Jackpot! The owl took off right at me and flew directly over my head with only 6 to 8 feet to spare. Wow! Here is one of my favorites of the take-off sequence, but it was hard to choose “a best”. The eight take-off photos took place over a duration under two seconds.

Here is a recent image published by Project Snowstorm of over one million migration points. This wildlife organization tags Snowies with GPS solar array powered bands. The information on the Snowies path is downloaded/uploaded either by  satellite or cellular phone.