Searching for Snowy Owls

Mar 16, 2024 | Wildlife | 0 comments

This time of year, the chances of finding Snowy Owls are much greater, at least near my home. After last year’s great photographic outings with finding so many owls, was hopeful for more sightings this year. Now a big difference this year was the lack of snow compared to last year. Last year there were snowbanks along the road of 3-4 feet and the fields had good foot or more of snow.

Meet up with my friend James and we searched around the area north of Drumheller and towards Three Hills for snowy owls. Our first stop was at the picturesque old town of Rowley. This hamlet has several restored old homes and businesses set up like an old western movie set. Back in the late 1980s, it was used in a cinema production.

The view from near the Elevators (3rd one just out of frame). Spotted a bird in the opening, so we moved closer and got out the big telephoto lens.

iPhone 5.1mm | 1/17s | f/1.6 | ISO 50

420mm | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | ISO 1000

Here are several of my photos of Rowley from over the years. Click on the photo to enlarge it and view the gallery.

I then noticed that the Rock Pigeons were landing on top of the 3rd grain elevator and then would hop down the roof and dive off. I then waited for the next one to hop down the slope like a slide and then leap off as it was being cheered on by the one at the top of the slide.

420mm cropped | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | ISO 250

After leaving Rowley, we headed west along the back roads in search of the snowy owl. There were many kilometers of empty winter fields. A few flocks of small Horned Lark birds searched the fields for seeds. Then as we rolled over a small hill, I spotted a snowy owl flying a few feet above the snow-covered field in a direction away from us. It then landed about half a kilometer away on the long driveway to this farmyard. Driving to the driveway got us about 300 meters away, but within a few seconds of stopping and getting out of the car it decided not to hang around and took off and flew across the fields and out of sight. This was the best closest photo from this brief visit.

420mm cropped | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | ISO 400

We then jumped back into the car and drove on in search of where it landed, but we had lost sight of it flying over the snow cover fields. Trying to spot a white owl on a white snow cover field is extremely difficult!

Earlier in the day, James had spotted a snowy owl south of Three Hills, so after a quick stop in Three Hills for coffee, we headed south. Only a few minutes south we spotted a snowy owl sitting on top of a powerline pole along the main highway. This owl didn’t like the attention and quickly took off and headed out 300 meters or so and landed in the middle of the field. I was able to grab one photo before it got too far away.

Now the wonders of technology and advanced software allowed me to get a nice photo of this snowy owl. The first photo is the raw image with no processing. The second photo is heavy cropping and using the new advanced AI features in Lightroom and Photoshop, I was able to clean up the noise, enhance the details and enlarge the image. For this image, I used a Nikon D810 with 36megapixels with a Nikon prime 300mm f4 lens with a 1.4 teleconverter. This gave me a lens length of 420mm.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | ISO 360

420mm croppped | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | ISO 360

Shortly after turning east off the main highway, we spot a bird of prey, a Prairie Falcon. This bird allowed us to get closer and took a few nice photos.