Chasing Down an Elusive Snowy Owl

It happened about six years ago.  I opened the door to my backyard and something caught my eye on top of the garage. In an instant, that "thing" spread its massive wings and flew right over me.  It was the first time I had ever seen a snowy owl.

Also known as Arctic owls, these beautiful creatures have been occasionally spotted around Cape Breton, much to the delight of the few who manage to catch a rare sighting. The one I spotted six years ago was the last time I saw one until this year and I was not alone in capturing the beauty that is these beautiful owls. I'm sure this winter must have been a record one for snowy owl sightings.  It seems everyone was seeing them everywhere!

When I first heard that an owl was spotted at Dominion Beach, I got my camera ready, bundled up and headed there to try and capture a photo.  I walked the entire length of that beach in the freezing cold and, alas, did not spot any owls.   

Over the next few days, I heard of more sightings around the area.  Each time I heard an owl was spotted in an area, I'd head there with my camera only to find out that the owl had departed the area, presumably to go hunting for its lunch.  

I continued to keep my eyes peeled for a sighting as I went about my daily duties.  About a week after I heard about the first sighting, I heard that people were spotting an owl on the cliffs at the bottom of a street not too far from where I lived.   

I drove to the spot, parked my car and got out to scan the coastline for something white. There was no snow at that time so the owl wouldn't be hard to spot.  I could see something further down the coast that looked out of place. It was white.  It looked owl-shaped. I got out my binoculars but I still couldn't tell.  I knew it was worth checking out though.  I walked slowly along the shore so I wouldn't scare whatever it was, if it was even anything. I figured with my luck, it was probably just a plastic bag that got stuck in some bushes. It was very still but I know owls can be very still.  At one point, I came to a dip in the terrain and was unable to see that spot anymore. When it leveled out again, I found myself almost face to face with a beautiful snowy owl. 

I stayed back so I wouldn't spook the owl, snapped a few shots and sat and watched him for a few minutes. He didn't seem scared of me, even made eye contact with me. So, was all that time spent chasing him down worth it?  Indeed it was!

later that week, I spotted snowy owls twice at Dominion Beach. One flew right over my head and landed on a dune on the other side of the sandbar and another one was perched on the bridge as I was walking back to my car. What a treat to have three snowy owl sightings in one week!

 

 

Another Day of Grace - The Humble Beginning......

For the first time since I started this blog, someone recently asked me how I came up with the name "Another Day of Grace". Well, I have to admit, I can't really take full credit for the name because the idea for the title was actually pitched to me by a friend. I can, however, take credit for my middle name, which happens to be Grace. The suggestion really jumped out at me and, although I prefer to take credit for my own work and come up with these type of things myself, I was unable to come up with a more suitable name for my first blog. And so Another Day of Grace was born....

I started this blog back in November of 2008. I didn't know a thing about blogging and frankly, I wasn't all that interested in blogging. But at the suggestion of a friend who thought it might be good to at least start one so I have a place to showcase my writing and photography skills, I began the process of setting it up and trying to find loyal readers. When I go back to those first posts, even I can see that this blog has come a long way from that personal diary peppered with random posts about anything and everything that, at best, occurred every few weeks. It was only recently that I decided to take it a step further and try to specialize a bit more and since my main interests are writing, photography and travel and my life pretty much revolves around those three things, I have decided to try and focus my blog around those interests. After all, they are all intertwined. I travel, I take pictures of my travels and I write about my travels so it seems to be working out quite well!

Anyone who has been following me for some time has probably noticed that I've made a lot of changes in the last few months and my posts have taken on a different direction and feel. I am still making some changes here and there and probably will be for the next little while.

That being said, I am thrilled to see that I will soon be reaching the milestone of 60,000 visits to my page. Not a whole lot considering the period of time we are talking about but a large amount of those visits have been in the last year so I guess that is a sign that people are finding me and seeing my work! With that milestone approaching soon, I would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to visit this page, to comment on my posts and for sharing it with others. I take pride in my work and thoroughly enjoy it and I am only glad to share it with the world!

The Joys of Exploring my own Backyard

My parents built the house I am living in now about twenty-five years ago. It sits on a fairly large plot of land and although I spent a lot of time in the yard over the last two and half decades, I never really got to know it as thoroughly as I have over the last few months. Instead of just walking around it or sitting on the step reading a book, I recently took to just sitting in various places in the yard watching and photographing the different animal, bird and plant species. When I first started doing this, the first thing I noticed was the smell of the roses and the lilacs. You wouldn't think that such small plants could cause an aroma strong enough to smell all throughout the property but if you stand long enough in one place, it hits you! This aroma drew me to the edge of the forest where I found some more things I had never taking notice of before. There are a few Beachnut trees and raspberry bushes in the back and sometimes I even see animals wandering about. I have spotted deer, fox, racoon, bobcat, squirrel, chipmunk rabbit and coyote. If I sit for a while and just listen, I can hear the faint, eerie howls of those distant coyotes getting ready for the evening hunt. I tend to wander back into the house not soon after hearing that sound! If I feel brave enough, sometimes I wander onto the wood paths behind the clothesline and see if I can see anything back there. When I was a child, my sisters and I had some tree houses in there and twenty-some years later, I still come across some of the toys we lugged into the woods or the ones that were taken away from the yard by playful foxes who didn't think to return them to us when they were done with them. There are also a lot of insects around my yard too. I mean, there are insects everywhere but I never really cared to stop long enough to actually just watch them. It may surprise you, but photographing them can be quite fun and challenging! I'm not really sure what motivated me to start wandering aimlessly around my backyard. Maybe it is the fact that I have been without a vehicle for a while now and have no choice but to stick around here and find things to do. Whatever the reason, I am glad I did. Someday I may be living in a big city again and I will be wishing I had a big beautiful country backyard to wander around in! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingan,_Nova_Scotia http://frankphillips.com/beautifulbugs/howto.htm http://www.lightstalking.com/macro-insect-tips

My Wildlife Photography

I love animals both wild and domestic. Taking pictures of domestic animals is easy but wild animals are a different story! Over the years I have spent a lot of time outdoors and a lot of time searching and waiting for wild animals to make an appearance only to have them pop up at the most unexpected moments! Here is my collection of wildlife photography. Some of them were taken right in my backyard while others were taken on the road and in the woods. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvy9KijOrsODoqDffUUsKZispgWNZ4mnx6B6AUJ0Xw_IdsSaS_6wFsf6UYDg_VII5mVGvRNv2dFA9aCZPTktlSNAWXHkybwMj7cL7gBGmIcJiMEJovE_Q7n1sVIZl4_0M00m8UAq331WU/s1600-h/DSC01313.JPG">