Arrived at Ottawa airport late Saturday afternoon. Weather was beautifully sunny and temperature was around –15 Centigrade. Went to meet local guide and he gave us some maps and instructions where to go and where we will find the most co-operative Snowy Owls. I was travelling with Greg Monkievich

First two days we spent with very co-operative first winter female Snowy Owl. Both days were bright and fairly cold (-15 to –25 Centigrade) so we were photographing the bird in the morning from 6.30 until 9.30 and again in the afternoon from 15.00 until 18.00. That gave us the best possible light with the bird. Since when the sun is too high above the horizon light is just too bright and you will not get light in owls eyes properly, but they will be partly in shade.

At this site we saw 3 other Snowies, but they were not so co-operative than this one bird which we were mainly working with. Our third morning was grey and temperature was obviously warmer, only –10 Centigrade, so a real heatwave…

We spent the morning with our familiar Snowy Owl and around lunch time moved about 100 km to another place closer to Montreal, from where we had information about the Owls. Althought it was grey afternoon we went to check the owlsites and found the young male and adult male. Young male was very co-operative, but the adult seemed to be quite shy. Despite the grey weather we photographed the young male.

Next two days we spent with this young male photographing it in the morning and again in the afternoon. Between these sessions we went to see beautiful adult male Snowy Owl, which had it´s regular watch point close to road on top of the haybales. At his site we saw two other Snowies, one older female and a young looking bird from a distance. We managed to take some images of older female.

On the afternoon of day 5 we came back to first winter female and had good evening session and good photography session with it on next morning as well. After the morning we decided to to look for a Hawk Owl which had been seen regularly about 40 kilometers away. While driving there we found perching adult male Snowy Owl on top of the tree on the side of the road. When we arrived to the place, we spotted the Hawk Owl immediately. However, we didn´t get good photos of this one. By now the sky clouded over and we returned to hotel via slightly different road and found one more Snowy Owl and this one was also perched on top of the tree! They can be very well visible birds and this one looked like young bird! Short break at the hotel and back to first winter female. We had very productive evening with it, because of the snow fall.

Because weather forecast wasn´t great we decided to have a lay on at Friday morning. Sky was all grey and temperature was around +5 Centigrade. Decided to move back to Ottawa today, since on Saturday weather should be better with sunny spells.

Saturday morning started cloudy, but during the day weather improved. However, it was very warm +10 Centigrade and snow was melting fast! It seemed like spring is coming in quickly. In the morning we went to see Great Grey Owls, but didn´t see them. Then we went to see Northern Hawk Owl and we managed to photograph that one nicely in beautiful perch. In the afternoon we decided to go back to Great Grey Owl site, where one bird appeared after short wait.

We managed to photograph this beautiful birdspecies well in flight and sitting in snow. Good reference material to show the difference between Eurasian Great Grey and North American Great Gray Owls. They are very different looking birds!

One week in Canada with Snowy Owls was a real “dream come true” trip, since I have photographed Snowy Owls on the breeding grounds in Finland, but never properly during the winter before this!

You can see other photos from this thip at http://finnature.fi/photo_album.html.16.html