The winter storm which dropped over 12 inches of snow in northern Minnesota is now history. At the storm’s outset the snow was very wet, and now that the temperatures have dropped below zero all the trees are flocked with snow and ice. Tis a Winter Wonderland.

The winds are now finally calm and it was only a few degrees below zero this morning. My youngest son and I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog where this male Snowy put on quite the show. First it chased a small bird for hundreds of yards, flying within 40 yards of us. The owl then perched in these nicely flocked pine trees till it got chased away by crows, once again flying right in front of us … 30 yards away. What an experience. Uff Dah! (note the male pine grosbeak in the background of the second image)

After all this excitement, the Snowy Owl settled down for a daytime siesta. We left it sleeping peacefully on a hay bale. I assume it will not move till late afternoon.

Oh yes … there were lots of other visual delights in the Bog … like this Pine Grosbeak amongst the iced branches.
All of these photographs were taken with my new Canon SX70 at full optical zoom (digital was turned off). Photographic conditions were near perfect. See my full SX70 Review.