A few years ago, I allowed myself get picked up by an older, good-looking gentleman at the Toronto Zoo. Don’t worry. He was in town for the weekend, specifically to shoot the polar bears in preparation for a trip to Churchhill. The next day, I met back up with him at the zoo, bringing my fellow along to meet him. We had dinner and we all became friends.
Ted invited us up to visit him for the weekend. He lives further north, about an hour from Ottawa. It had been too long since we’d seen him, he had been teasing us with images for some time of a local Snowy Owl, we needed a break, so took him up on his invitation.
It was a wonderful weekend.
The blowing snow went hand in hand with the windchill of about -35°C. The owl didn’t seem to be bothered. She landed here after having caught some lunch and sat here for quite a while. If you want to photograph these beauties…patience is required. While they hunt during the day, they seem to just sit around waiting and surveying while waiting for a morsel to make itself known. Their heads are constantly swivelling, taking everything in.
Ted is a generous and entertaining host, a talented cook, and a brilliant photographer who shoots with the same camera system I do. He allowed me to use his 300mm 2.8 with 2x teleconverter to get a little closer to the owl, without, you know, getting too close to the owl. (A tip for those wanting to get into photography but uncertain about which camera system in which to invest is to see what those around you are using. If a lot are using one system, that might be what you should look at. You’ll have resources for camera-specific questions as well as the ability to share lenses.)
She seemed to be enjoying the snow. We are identifying her as a she based on her colouring, though there is a chance she is a juvenile male, which shares a similar colouring to the female. Males become more and more white as they get older.
The only thing that remained consistent over the weekend was the amazing food, good company, and wonderful view that we woke up to each morning. The weather changed from day to day: from snow, to cold then colder, calm wind then windchill, and ended with blue sky. Wind chill often brought the temperature down to -35° C.
When you see a Snowy Owl sitting on this snow-covered mound with last year’s vegetation, it’s easy to see how someone could pass her by and not notice. With the naked eye, she just looks like a little bump of snow.
I spent time outside, climbing through snowbanks and shooting with my camera on a tripod and more time shooting inside the car, which is a great blind that allows one to get closer to wildlife without disturbing it than does walking around. It works well when the subject is close to roads, as this owl remained for the 3 days we were there. She perched on rooftops, on the top of a silo, at the peak of a church cross and on snowy mounds in what seems to be her favourite field. We saw her catch a mouse and watched for hours on end as she seemed to just enjoy surveying her territory, whether in snow or sun. While it was bitterly cold for those who weren’t dressed properly for the weather, apparently Snowy Owls keep a toasty internal temperature while outside temperatures drop to as much as -50° C. Even dressed well, there were times when the gloves I was wearing weren’t enough to keep my shutter finger from going numb with the cold. Whether outside or sitting in the car with the window open and the wind blowing in, I could pull my mohair scarf up around my face to keep it warm, but then my glasses would fog up, making it a tricky thing to see through the viewfinder.
Apparently she likes to perch here. It certainly is a high vantage point upon which to survey her territory.
I wrote up some cold-weather photography tips some time back for a friend and they still hold up. Another tip, not only for cold weather, might be to consider borrowing or renting a lens that’s at least 600mm to shoot something like this. I would have been happy with anything I shot with my 300mm, but was very grateful for Ted lending me his “baby.” Everything is always a tradeoff. My system works well for me most of the time because I spend a lot of time walking with my camera and a long 2.8 lens would be brutal to cart around. My 70-300mm lens is perfect for me most times, but to get more personal with wildlife, giving them their space while at the same time getting a nice close-up, a longer lens is definitely important.
This is a look back at my first Snowy Owl sightings last year (which were my first ever, outside the pair at the Toronto Zoo.) Since then, I had been hoping to get better shots, and thanks to Ted, I did! Still smiling.
We are back in Toronto. Snow along the road is black, but it’s pretty remarkable that the snow is still here. I’ll continue to enjoy whatever is left of winter, because soon enough, the heat will set in.
Tops of poles are other places she likes to perch.
Atop a silo (this is farmland). Again, easy for someone to miss if not keeping an eye out for her.
It was beautiful to see her perched on white with a blue backdrop.
Here, she has successfully caught lunch. According to research, she requires the equivalent of 7-12 mouse per day to stay healthy. Right on the other side of the white snowbank behind her is a highway. If you think living in cities and towns means no wildlife, you haven’t been looking very hard.
Here is an extremely cropped version of the image above, showing the mouse going down head first. Alas, the focus seems to be falling on the vegetation just behind her.
She sat here for a long time before deciding to take off to another mound. I wondered if she had been making an attempt at another catch, as she stayed very low to the ground before landing.
A closeup showing her beautiful golden eyes. Most of the time, her eyes seemed partially closed to keep out the snow and wind.