Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Great Horned Owl

This was sitting in my backyard elm tree a couple days ago.  I wondered why there were so few birds around.


Oh, Hi


I've been up all night.....need sleep...


But, first a little feather grooming


Some feathers need more work than others


There, that feather is all cleaned, preened and zipped back together


This GHOW has been in the neighbourhood for a week or so now.  It probably is a female since it is a very large bird (males of this species are considerably smaller) 

Same owl, different day.  My cousin and neighbour, Larry Preddy, got this excellent photo.

Great Horned Owl  Bubo virginianus subarcticus


There are several subspecies of GHOW.  The B.v. subarcticus we have out here in the Canadian Prairies has a very white facial disk, generally very little brown in the plumage (see above)

3 comments:

  1. Great Pix Kathy/Larry.
    Whenever I see an owl twist it's neck backwards, I think for Meryl Streep when she twists her neck in Death Becomes Her:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7sMilQeVHk

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  2. Thanks, both. I love owls. Too funny, Brian. I must find that movie and watch it again.

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