I often drive several hundred kilometers and spend countless hours outside trying to find wildlife to photograph. However, sometimes it’s much easier. This past week I just had to look out my office window! Sitting in a stand of aspen trees was this great horned owl. Not surprisingly the usual four squirrels that frequent the backyard were nowhere to be seen. I quickly grabbed my camera, took a few photographs and returned to the warmth of my office to watch the owl from a distance.
Another one of my favorites! This Great Horned owl was sitting in a tree only about 40 feet from the main gate early in the morning. Two of her recently fledged offspring flew off when I arrived, but this one stayed. I photographed her for almost an hour, and during that time various song birds would see her and try to disturb her enough to fly off. This robin was the most persistent and made several fly-by attempts to get the owl to leave but the owl just closed her eyes during the fly-bys. The robin eventually flew off and even I left before the owl as the sun got too high in the sky and started washing out all the colours.
This great horned owl fledgling flew off to join it’s sibling to feed on a ground squirrel that was delivered by their mom.
I took this photo near the park entrance to Waterton where this and one more GHO fledgling waited for their parent to come back with ground squirrels for them to feast on.
Owen Slater Photography 