Saturday, December 6, 2008

50 posts but not quite finished

An early morning run around the lanes, as I call the St-Clet area of Quebec, revealed a new Snowy Owl, the fourth of the winter there for me so far. One of the owls was on a barn roof about 120m from the road so I did a bit of video and digiscoping even though the light was not too great, overcast, light snow. The video shows two birds, the first is the one mentioned above, the slight vibration at times, caused by a brisk wind rocking the car, makes the video a bit blurry in places but the head bobbing action is worth seeing.

The second bird was 250m+ away but I took footage anyway. I'm taking any photo or video I can so that I can produce an ID reference based on the head spotting patterns which are surely unique to each bird. You can see the snow scudding across the field of view and, again, it was breezy. Normally a few judicious squeaks, as heard on the video, is enough to gain any bird's attention but at this range it required a less than subtle whistle.

Elsewhere in Quebec, Northern Hawk Owls continue to be seen, I'm hoping one comes our way soon, otherwise I'll have to go and see one anyway. I live in hopes of one at the pits one day.


No comments: