Snowy Owl at Col. Sam Smith Park and a Kestrel

So, this blog is not much of a surprise to many who I know through other means besides the blog. I sent these pictures out to anyone and everyone I know who would appreciate this. To those who only know me through here, this blog is for you...

A few weeks ago we were at Col. Sam Smith Park down at the bottom of Kipling Avenue in Etobicoke. It is on the south side of Lakeshore Blvd.

In our walks, if we see someone with a camera and/or binoculars, we ask them what they have seen so far. Well, this day, a woman said "A female Snowy Owl down at the pier". From that, we shortened our search of some water fowl, and made a quick pace over to the pier. The woman was only at the pier about 15 minutes prior so our chances we good to see the Owl... and we totally lucked out!



There she was, out in the middle of the pier, safe from all humans, dogs and anything else that could not fly. The walkways are locked off, granting nobody access. One could only walk around the pier and watch her in the middle of it. She had about 125 ft of water surrounding her. What a sight though! It was brutally cold, with wind chills nearing minus thirty celcius! This seemed to bother her none and she looked quite content just sunning herself. A few other on-lookers were in awe with her presence. One woman was here from Georgia USA and got word of the Owl while in town and had to see her. It was funny to see how many cameras were out and pointed in her (the Owl) direction.

I've gone back a few times since that day and was fortunate enough to find her again. At one point, I decided to see what else was around, and followed an American Kestrel for some time. When I got back to the Owl, she had moved, she was off the pier and sitting on the ice. A week or so later I was talking with a friend of mine, who was down at the pier about one hour before me, on that day, and could not find the Owl. I thought back to the day and recalled wishing I had his cell number because I knew he and his wife had talked of going down that same day I was there. I wanted to know if he did, and if not, to get their butts down ASAP.

Anyways, this definitely is one of the highlights of the winter so far. I do hope to see her at least one more time before the season ends and she flies north again. Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Here she is relaxing on the frozen waters of Lake Ontario...


I've got the zoom stretched as far as it can go for these. She's a beauty!




Part of a skeleton of some large fish I walked over in my attempts to get as close to the pier as humanly possible without trying to step out onto the ice.


Here's the American Kestrel up in the tree. He's not too fond of my photographing him. The sky was so drab and grey, making it very difficult to get a clean picture.


The Kestrel finally had enough of me and flew off... waaaaaaaaaaaay off.