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)