Yesterday at morning I interviewed a local celebrity who made the outrageous claim that Great Gray Owls are boring, and she could personally not understand where all the owl paparazzi had gone to. I tried to calm her down, and said “the grays” were just a passing fad and soon the color of snow would reign once more.

Snowy Owls Rock!

With a hint of sun I decided to cruise the Superior, Wisconsin fairgrounds and the Bong Airport in search of the large predator which has not made any appearances this year. While I did not find a Snowy Owl, nor has anyone else except a brief sighting one day by Mr. Steve, this winter for the first time ever there are no Snowy Owls in the Twin Ports, I did find two Northern Shrikes.

This predator bird is perhaps ounce for ounce the most vicious killer out in the bird world. It is also know as the Butcher Bird … for good reason. This robin sized bird, not a hawk by any means, is one of our winter visitors from up north here on the Arctic Riviera. Take a look at this first image and focus upon the pointy fence. Northern Shrikes are known for impaling their kill on barbed wire or any other nasty pointed item. While I did not see this Shrike catch anything, it did not need to go far upon catching something to cache its prey for a later meal.

On the other side of the Superior Airport, I found another shrike hunting. These birds tend to like bushy trees by meadows where they can hide and surprise their prey.

There are special evenings in life. One of which was last night as I watched the full moon rise behind a Snowy Owl at the beginning of its evening hunt. The images are just one camera exposure each, not a combination of multiple images. Trying to get the moon and the owl both in focus was an extreme challenge. The slow shutter speeds I needed to utilize to capture enough light forced blurring difficulties as the moon is actually moving quite fast. The color of the moon changes as it rises in the sky because there is less atmospheric dust to shine through (As the moon rose I was changing my position relative to the owl to keep the moon and the owl in the same frame). Finally I have included the final image BECAUSE it is dark and demonstrates I do NOT use flash for night photography of owls.

My favorite photograph from last night is the third image. For over a year I have been trying to capture a Snowy Owl against the full moon rising. There is only about 20 minutes of effective photography time, and that assumes I have first found a Snowy Owl right before dark (and it stays in place) and then have totally clear skies and a full moon.