Snowy #8, 9 and 10!!!!

So, anybody who has been following my blog in the last while knows I have been enjoying the "Snowy Owl Invasion" this winter.

I had my seventh Snowy sighting just over a week ago and I believe I made mention how I had hoped to reach ten Snowy Owl sightings, as in ten different Snowy Owls, before the end of the winter. Well, lo and behold, I racked up 3 this past Saturday. Two of which were pretty far out in fields, so didn't even attempt to photograph either. Plus, we had driven up to Gravenhurst in one heck of a snow storm that morning for a 3 hour photo shoot at the Muskoka Wildlife Centre. It was a fun but exhausting number of hours. I don't enjoy long drives and especially in snow storms. I drain myself due to stress and heavy concentration with the drive.

The ride home was much better, and we decided to stop off and scope out an area we knew Snowy Owls had been reported seen at. I visited a day earlier and only found the male I have seen a few times this winter. I shouldn't say "only" because he is one beautiful Owl and a treat to see. And the Snowys won't be here past the winter months, so might as well enjoy them. And Saturday with a few extra sets of eyes looking for them, a couple more Snowy Owls were seen after the photo shoot. Much thanks to our friend Amanda for picking them out deep in some farm fields.

And then later that afternoon, Angie and I had a wonderful surprise of seeing yet another Snowy Owl fly south from the airport fields and land on a lamp post along highway 401. As much as I wanted to veer over to the shoulder, hammer on the brakes and get a good lengthy look at him... it just wasn't possible, and definitely a dangerous choice I could have made. Ah well. We know what we saw without any doubts, so he counts as well.

I am not raising the numbers in hopes of hitting 12, 15 or ??? Ten is a darn good number of actual Snowy Owls to see in a matter of 3 months.

But that don't mean I won't keep my eyes open for any more in the remaining weeks of winter or head out to another area when sightings may get reported.

Here are a couple photos of the most recent Snowy Owl that I was able to stop and photograph from a respectable distance. It is a male, and in the numbers of sightings, he is actually number two (second Snowy Owl I saw this winter). But they are all number one in my opinion!

Here he is giving himself a good wash (preening).

Any time I've ever seen him prior, he's just chilling out. Today was a nice show of something different.

Preening was done, I drove past him, had one last look and off I went.