Don't even read the title if you don't like Great Grey Owls.

While we certainly don't get anywhere near as many as we do Great Horneds, it's not unusual for us to get Great Grey Owls in at the shelter. What is unusual is for me to photograph them. Great Grey Owls stress easily and badly. Obviously the majority of the birds I'm photographing would be happier not having a camera in their face, but there's a distinction. There's good agitation - the kind that keeps them alert and wary of people - and there's bad agitation. Great Greys are very prone to the bad kind. The kind that causes the kind of stress that is unhealthy. If I sense any hint of that kind of agitation I drop the food and leave, not making eye contact. It's rare that a Great Grey is in a mellow enough mood to be photographed.

So when, like today, a Great Grey is in a mellow mood, I practically fill the card. Today's post is a Great Grey a palooza. Off we go then... ready, set...



FuhLING!



I also avoid the flash to be as unobtrusive as possible.









Love that facial disk.



...and that's enough of that.

This title doesn't even begin to make up for how long it's been since I updated.

Okay this is cool. Well I think it's cool.

Cowardly Owl's roomate found a hole in the mesh of his enclosure and got out. While Mr. G searches for the elusive opening Cowardly Owl's roomate is in the converted fox cage with Brigitte, Diva, and Brigitte's brother.

Cowardly Owl's roomate is about as dark phase as a dark phase Great Horned Owl gets, and Brigitte's brother is about as light phase as our Nothern light phase Great Howned Owls get. They were sitting side by side. Today I was finally able to fully appreciate how suprised people are by how pale our Great Horned Owls are up here. I've been up close and personal with about as many of one as the other for four years, but I guess I somehow had never seen the contrast presented so clearly.



They really look like they could be completely different kinds of owls. From now on I'll be less suprised when people ask if Great Horneds in educational displays are Snowy Owls. If you're only used to seeing dark phases that's not such a suprising guess.

Everyone seems to be getting along alright. Still a lot of checking each other out to be done, though, of course.





Everyone's still playing nice in Eagle daycare. I think the young guy looks to be fattening up nicely. He needed more meat on his bones, and our one concern with his going outside was that he wouldn't get his share of the food. Looks to be getting his share of everything he pleases.



Here's the Red Tail supervising my clean-up of the wind tunnel.



Here's the Ferruginous supervising my - and everyone else's, for that matter - work in the yard.



Here's a truly exceptionally bad photo of the Snowy Owl, but I like how you can see the centre of gravity shift happening.



Here's the baby with bed head from last week's post. He's a full fledged Dove now. That's him closest the window.



That's what this guy will look like in two weeks.



Yes he's looking a little badly photoshopped around the edges there. Doves are lousy housekeepers. No damn wonder Noah kicked them off the ark early.

Here's a little bird that I saw in the yard and actually got a shot of! Yeah it's nasty, but I only have 3X optical zoom, and those trees are damnably tall!



Another yeah it could be better but with my camera lucky to get anything at all shot. Pelicans flying over head. Be still my heart - I don't know if there's a sight in nature that I more greatly adore. Waxed moustaches aloft!



Lastly an almost impossible to get a bad shot of to make up for the amateurisms Raider.



Puppy tongue can absolve any esthetic crime.

I write the worst titles on Sundays.

This is not a good shot, but I like it. It's just the kinda view that I look up and see when I'm just doing my thing.



This is an adequate snapshot of the Red Tail and Haircut (lost a fight with a swather) sharing a perch in their renovated wind tunnel. They're often to be found side by side, but Haircut has a habit of jumping off it whenever the camera is produced, so I was happy to get this.



Haircut definitely has one thing going for him these days - he definitely gives good Hawk Pants!

The Swainsons that Mrs. G and I attended to yesterday, pre-wing bandage.



A few weeks ago I took a pic of a couple of eggs in a dish. This is one of those eggs.



Just a little blonde left to lose there - I love the little squiggles on the top of it's head.

Scabby's looking fabby!



Very few if any raw spots left!

...and we're gonna need a bigger ball.

There should probably be some reference to birds in this title.

The Broadwing would like to wish everyone a happy molting season.



Diva would like to wish everyone the opportunity to sit and post in peace...



...without getting bumped off their perches by Brigitte's hyper brother. Diva also wishes that dumb dog would stop looking at him.



A very different looking bird without his perch, our Diva.

The snowy wishes that said dumb dog would stop racing around her enclosure.



...but knows from experience that the silly beast won't.



Brigitte... ah, who knows? Brigitte probably wishes he was a hundered feet tall and trampling a metropolis, but this is Brigitte. He could just as easily be wishing he was an eggplant.







The Ferruginous wishes she was the most spoiled rottenest bird ever to stay at the shelter, and is quite pleased with how that's coming along. It's quite charming, actually. Mrs. G and I had been working with another bird, and Mrs. G - who runs the shelter with her husband - was cleaning it's cage before I put it back. She stepped into the other cage room on the other side of the main treatment area and I heard the sweetest bird call I'd ever heard, but a bird call I'd never heard before in my life. I asked Mrs. G what it was. The look of love flashed in that woman's eye, and she replied "that's my Ferruginous Hawk".

The Ferruginous has taken to commenting on my comings and goings in and out of her cage room too, and I know she does the same for Mr. and Lil G (the G's daughter). She really called for Mrs. G, though. How beautiful. For as hard as that woman works I'm not suprised that the most intelligent bird I've ever seen has taken a particular shine to her.

Beaver Pond Trail 2

Beaver Pond Trail beckons you...



...then gives you a great breath of air...



...then draws you close....



...and keeps you close.



There are friends other than beavers to see there too.



I'm hoping to have moose sightings there this year as I have in the past. It's a moose friendly kind of place.



Of course oversized huskies like it too.



Landscapes open like portraits along the trail.



The light plays many games there.





This is what ten pm in Elk Island looks like in May.



Trails of a different sort can be seen.



Trails of a different sort of traveller.



I need to brush up on my weasel-ology. That and get a better zoom.

Never mind. What can be seen with the naked eye satisfies well enough.