What started off as a pretty cold and windy morning, ended up a calm and mainly sunny day for our first ever Snowy Owl Prowl Photo Outing on Nov 28. This was one of our more popular Outings with a group of 7 vehicles leaving from Cochrane and led by our Club President, Wendi Forster. Another group of 9 vehicles from Calgary met in Delacour and was led by our Outings Coordinator, Dennis Gowriluk. Both groups then headed out to Prowl the areas around Beisker, Delacour and the Langdon/Strathmore area in search of the elusive Snowies.
Members travelled along the many gravel back roads in either individual vehicles or in small groups of vehicles with bright pink ribbons to identify Club Members if they passed each other in their travels. While Prowling for Snowies, members found many opportunities to take photographs of landscapes, abandoned farm buildings and vintage farm equipment. Other wildlife sightings included coyotes, grouse, snow buntings and deer.
Several members located and photographed at least one Snowy Owl with one member finding seven. Most of the sightings were in the area east of Beiseker to the north and south of Highway 9. We hope to see several submissions of your favorite Snowie shots for the Club Photo Outings Website. Unfortunately, due to the recent covid restrictions, we had to cancel our Post Prowl Meeting and Lunch. However, based on the positive feedback that we received, the members had a great time cruising the back roads Prowling for Snowies and other photo opportunities. It looks very much like we will have to organize another Snowy Owl Prowl this winter.
Snowy Owl Prowl #2 Jan 9th 2021
Another very well attended, socially distanced Snowy Owl Prowl was held on Jan 9. The day started with a beautiful sunrise followed by blue skies and hoar frost covered trees and fences which resulted in many beautiful landscape photos being taken. As the members Prowled the roads primarily east of Beiseker, several Snowy Owls were photographed along with some Horned Owls and Deer. Other sightings included Snow Buntings, Coyotes and Hungarian Partridge. Our Cochrane members were led by Karen Thornton and the Calgary members met in Beiseker and were led by Dennis Gowriluk.
