Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus

Last but not least of the seven owls, the Snowy Owl... Once resident over here on the Northern isles of Scotland, now believed to just be a migrant visitor during the colder winter months. 

Snowy owls just look out of place most of the time, but when we get some now here they suddenly make sense. You can see above how brilliantly and beautifully they blend into their surroundings! 

I have very few photos of Hedwig out of the snow, and those I do are nearly all taken only older D90, but here are a few.

Hedwig in the Daisies

Snowy owls do perch, but they are also often found on the ground, and so for our owl days we offer both. This is a young Hedwig in a few daisies in the lead up to summer.

Snowy Owl

And this is him taken earlier this year, and the only photo in this post taken with my newer camera. You can see on his wing and back how much he has aged/moulted... far less of the black specks. He is likely to lose more over the next few years too.

Take Off

 I really enjoy taking photographs of our owls flying, and love the shapes they often create in the air. This is one of the first flight shots I took of any owl, and was really just a hop shot of him jumping up from the log in the dell before flying to an a-frame. I would love the log not to be there, and the background to be further away, but am still happy with it being one of my first.

Hedwig at around 2 weeks

 Owls are ugly little things when they first hatch, but it only takes them about 12 weeks to grow to a beautiful owl. They grow extremely fast!

Hedwig at around 8 weeks

 Hedwig always seemed happy as a quickly growing chick, and soon became a favourite at the Centre.

Hedwig fully grown

 Expect more flying shots, owl growth and snow photos in the future. I know the snow photos from last year in particular has been asked for, so I will get round to showing some of those in a week or so.

Thanks for looking.