I had a wonderful time watching and filming this beautiful Snowy Owl male relaxing on a fencepost at sunrise. In order to catch the soft early light I got there and was set up by 6:30 am when it was still dark and was able to stay on site for well over an hour despite a temperature of -20 C with the windchill. I wore 4 layers on the bottom and 5 layers on top, but my gloves were the weak link despite my USB hand warmers... my fingers are still mad at me.
Disclosure:
Unfortunately, Ottawa has a reputation for baiting Snowy Owls. This happens within one or two days of the Owls first arriving, which this year was 2 weeks ago, and continues until they head back north in mid-March. The reality is that if you want to see and photograph Snowies in the Ottawa countryside you have to make your peace with the situation and settle for the ones that are already habituated like this one is. That doesn't mean we have to participate in the actual baiting, it just means that these Owls no longer fear people so they don't fly away whereas when they first arrive you can't get within 200 feet of them. Some people, like one friend of mine, are so angry at this that they refuse to even go out to the fields and see the Owls. As for myself, I refuse to give up enjoying and photographing and filming these beautiful birds because of other people's behaviour, so I work around it. I wish it weren't so, but that's life. This Owl was not being baited before or during the time I was there
otherwise I would not have stayed.
Disclosure:
Unfortunately, Ottawa has a reputation for baiting Snowy Owls. This happens within one or two days of the Owls first arriving, which this year was 2 weeks ago, and continues until they head back north in mid-March. The reality is that if you want to see and photograph Snowies in the Ottawa countryside you have to make your peace with the situation and settle for the ones that are already habituated like this one is. That doesn't mean we have to participate in the actual baiting, it just means that these Owls no longer fear people so they don't fly away whereas when they first arrive you can't get within 200 feet of them. Some people, like one friend of mine, are so angry at this that they refuse to even go out to the fields and see the Owls. As for myself, I refuse to give up enjoying and photographing and filming these beautiful birds because of other people's behaviour, so I work around it. I wish it weren't so, but that's life. This Owl was not being baited before or during the time I was there
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