Y'all Are Too Kind - Blog Posts

aloegator-arts

11 months ago

I cannot believe the amount of love I'm feeling from y'all, thank you so much for Following/Sharing with my art, it means a lot to me 😭💕

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cad bane simps y'all are too kind

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venerablemonk27

2 years ago

I found the Snowy Owl! Using the recent sightings reported in the area as my guide, I went driving around Dane, WI yesterday. I stopped to scan a corn field with my binoculars and spotted this guy perched on a fence post.

A male Snowy Owl sits on a wooden fence post and stares directly at the camera. It is almost entirely white, with a few brown flecks on the wings and breast. Its eyes are yellow and partly closed. A light snow falls around the Owl.

I knew right away the large white bird on the post was the Snowy I was after, so I quickly grabbed my camera and got out to find a good spot to set up. Of course, as soon as I got the bird in frame he decided to fly up to the roof peak of a farm building further away. Even so, I sat down and took a few long-distance bursts in case that was only look I would get. Then I noticed that there was a house among the farm buildings. If someone was home maybe they'd let me take a closer look?

A male Snowy Owl sits on a wooden fence post and looks into the distance to the left. It is almost entirely white, with a few brown flecks on the wings and breast. Its eyes are yellow and partly closed. A light snow falls around the Owl.

Just as I'd hoped, the folks living there were home and they were happy to let me onto their property for a chance at a better photo. They even pointed out a good spot behind a concrete wall where I could stand totally out of sight of the corn field. It turned out to be such a good blind that all the shots in this post were taken there. And just as we were talking, the Owl flew back down to that same fence post!

A male Snowy Owl sits on a wooden fence post and looks into the distance to the right. It is almost entirely white, with a few brown flecks on the wings and breast. Its eyes are yellow and partly closed. A light snow falls around the Owl.

He was very cooperative, sitting mostly still while I fiddled with settings and let the auto-focus pick between the snow and the post. I figure he was hunting, scanning the field for little creatures. Then he did a little preening and stretched his neck before taking flight!

A male Snowy Owl takes flight. It is almost entirely white, with a few brown flecks on the wings and breast. Its eyes are yellow and partly closed. Its wings are fully extended upward and its shaggy legs hang down below, showing just a hint of black talons. Its eyes are closed to slits. A light snow falls around the Owl.

A male Snowy Owl flies low over a snow-covered corn field. It is almost entirely white, with a few brown flecks on the wings and breast. Its wings are extended downward, showing the full pattern of white and brown on the flight feathers. Its eyes are closed to slits. A light snow falls around the Owl.

He didn't immediately pounce on anything, instead wheeling up toward a tree across the field. I thought he would land up there, but instead he flushed a smaller dark bird and started chasing it! Zooming in on the photos of the sortie revealed that the enemy was either a Cooper's or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. I wish I could have seen how that encounter turned out, but they flew out of sight across the field.

A male Snowy Owl chases a hawk in the distance, flying through the snowfall near a large barn.

Even without a high-speed pursuit, seeing the Snowy Owl so close was my top birding moment of the year so far. Many thanks to Dean and Deb for welcoming me onto their property and making this moment possible!