420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 640

That time of the year when snowy owls can be found across the southern prairie landscapes in Alberta. Up until just a week ago, the snow cover in this area was almost nothing, making it difficult to capture the kind of snowy owl photos I find most compelling. The area I visit is about an hour to hour and half drive away, so it becomes an undertaking to go searching. I often use bird tracking websites that post recent bird sightings to determine the best times to visit local hotspots. This year, however, there have been noticeably fewer owl sightings reported, which is unusual compared to previous years. Noticing the lack of reported owl sightings over the last month had me wondering if the snowy owls had not migrated back to the area this winter.

Then finally mid-February we got snow and now it looks like winter again. With the weather chilly (-25 Celsius that morning), but likely to warm up a bit (forecasted was for -8 Celsius), I met up with a friend to go searching for the snowy owls. He had been driving through the area few days earlier and saw a couple of owls.

We set out to the zone (east of Airdrie and west of Drumheller) where we have seen owls over the last couple of years. The weather was clearing nicely, and the sun was warming up the landscape, ever so slowly. At the end of the day, it never warmed up more than -15 Celsius and a light wind added a bit of wind chill.

Once beyond the town of Beiseker we ventured off the main highway and started exploring the gravel roads. Sure enough, in the same spot as last year, I spotted a snowy owl sitting in the middle of a field that was elevated land from the surrounding area. It was a good 300 to 500 meters away, so too far for a photo. I took one for GPS reference, but due to the sitting on the ground and the distance between us, the photo was blurry due to the heat waves distorting the air. The owl just sat there enjoying the sun and the nice views. Happy to at least spot our first snowy owl, we set off to keep searching.

Not that far down the road, we spotted a vehicle parked on the side of the road and 3 people standing nearby. Sure enough, as we approached, we spotted the snowy owl sitting on the powerline pole and these people were actually photographers with tripods and big lens photographing the owl. We came to a stop further away from them, but the owl wasn’t pleased with our arrival and took off and flew past us. I snapped a few photos but struggled to get anything great. Losing sight of the owl behind us, we lost where it went. So, we turned around and drove the grid looking for it but not seeing it. As we returned after making the square grid loop back to where we spotted the owl, we saw the vehicle again just a bit further down the road and the photographers were outside taking photos again. This time we slowly came up and parked near the other vehicle and was pleased to see the snowy owl accept us this time and remain on the powerline pole.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/6.3 | ISO 80

420mm | 1/2000s | f/6.3 | ISO 90

So often in the past, the owls didn’t hang around if they were near us. They seem to prefer their large personal space and are busy hunting for food. Usually after a few minutes they would move on. But this owl was so pleased to have 5 photographers giving it lots of attention, it just sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. I was lucky I was ready to photograph this little neck stretch; it lasted only a few seconds.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/11 | ISO 280

I had cut my finger trigger finger and had to wear a Band-Aid, which made it hard to feel the shutter button on the camera. Therefore, I took way too many photos of this owl, just sitting there. After 45 minutes of sitting there watching the owl, we decided to move on and see if we could find some more. This one was happy just chilling there all day. With so many photos, I was happy to get some nice sharp photos. Often many can be soft focus due to movement, wind, or camera shaking, or the rush to get a photo before it flies away. So, we left this one sleeping on the pole with the other photographers sticking around hopefully for some action. As we drove away, I looked back and it hadn’t moved.

4200mm | 1/2000s | f/11 | ISO 280

Only 20 minutes further down the road, my friend spotted another one on the powerline pole. It was on the main busy highway, but we lucked out with a driveway to park to get off the highway. One always needs to be ready to start shooting right away, as often the owl takes flight shortly after arriving. So quickly we started snapping photos once we stopped.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/9 | ISO 200

420mm | 1/2000s | f/9 | ISO 200

The above photos came out really nice! Very pleased with the quality. Impressed my older camera equipment is still working well. The camera is 11 years old, and the lens is 16 years old. This one also wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, so we left this one too.

We then drove further north and east to areas that we spotted owls in the past, but this year we didn’t see any. With the sun starting to drop in the sky and golden hour approaching, we headed back to where we found the owls early in the day.

Shortly after passing the location of the last owl, my friend spotted an owl on the pole beside the highway. It was about 1 kilometer south from where we spotted one earlier.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 400

The late day’s sunlight was warm and golden, making for some beautiful portraits. Hours early that day, I did some reading on owl patterns and learnt that owls always take off and land into the wind. Hmm, good to know! I then looked at the forecasted wind patterns for the day, and the wind was to be blowing from the southeast all day. Now hours later with an owl sitting on a pole I remembered this information. I was on the southwest side getting some nice golden light on the owl’s face. I then began slowly walking down the far side of the road beyond the owl to a point now where I was southeast of it. I was pleased with the photos here too as they offered nice rim lighting.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 400

After a few minutes of photography, and lucky I was ready, without any warning, the snowy owl lifted its wings and launched into the air towards me! I smashed the camera shutter down and rapid fire and tried to keep the owl in the center of the viewfinder. A bit of panic hit, as the owl in the viewfinder got bigger and bigger, was it diving down at me, or going to fly over me? It was hard to tell just by looking in the zoomed in viewfinder. Well, I’m here to tell the story, so it glad to say it flew over me and kept on flying for many kilometers. I tracked it as long as I could see it, but it eventually disappeared into the snowy prairie landscape. Here is the sequence of photos.

Click on the photo to enlarge and then use the arrow > on the right middle side of the photo to advance through the photos.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 560

We drove south looking along the landscape for the owl but couldn’t see it. What was that white clump on that fence post? Only 5 minutes down the road from the last one, there was another snowy owl. We stopped on the side of the road about 30 meters from it. This one was pure white and shy, as it took off right away. I tracked it and snapped this photo of it over the prairie landscape.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 800

It did a large circle and flew back behind us to another fence post. We drove ahead and turned around and also circled back. This time the snowy owl allowed us a few minutes of photos with the beautiful late day golden sunlight rim lighting it.

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 800

Then just like that, it lifted off and flew north and then around and passed by our location to the east of us. The evening sunlight spot lighting the magnificent owl as it flew off. As it flew beside us, it looked towards us and nodded a farewell as it flew off into the sunset.

4200mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 560

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 500

420mm | 1/2000s | f/8 | ISO 500

The sun then dipped behind some clouds that were hovering just over the mountains, so that indicated it was time to head back home. It was a good day out searching for snowy owls and to date, these are my best and most favorite snowy owl photos. Hope you enjoyed the stories and photos. Cheers, Jeff