Took a hike at sunrise looking for Snowies. Found ice music and these mallards!

Around 4 pm this afternoon I found a Snowy Owl. For twenty minutes I watched as it slowly awakened and became more alert. A bit after 4:20 pm the Snowy flew 300 yards away and landed on a large snow bank. In a few moments it stretched its head, in what I thought was in preparation to pounce on some unsuspecting vole.

Wrong! There was another Snowy Owl about 100 yards away and suddenly an owl fight was in progress. There was a definite disagreement as to the border of the winter hunting territories! It was super cool to watch, and impossible to photograph as the combination of low light and acrobatics in the air rendered my camera useless. I did capture these images of the take-off, and a final photograph of the victor. Even these photos were tough given the low light.  After defeating the other bird, the Snowy Owl returned to the same exact snow pile.

I totally intend to be back to check on these two owls. I don’t believe this altercation is over, and I know their territory dividing line!