First of my 2013 Snowies

[Vince Maidens]

Hey Folks

That time of year again, and the Snowy Owls have come South again for the winter.

Nice big female hunting in a strange area, she's getting the hang of it slowly.

1/1600th
F 3.2
ISO 200

[herhot1]

WOW! Breathtaking and beautiful

[SNiedzwiecki]

Just breathtaking! Congratulations on such a great flight shot!

[bartjanmutters]

Just awesome!

[Peirceman]

The sharpness and color of the eye really make this shot. Well done!

Scott

[Rubina]

Beautiful. Nice and sharp and completely stands out from the snow!!!

[Vince Maidens]

Thanks folks

Trick on snow, change from evaluative (or matrix on Nikon) and switch to center point and meter off the bird.

[darwin]

perfect focus on the eye, gorgeous.

[Russ]

Vince, great capture. Just enough tonal difference between the pure white of the snowy vs the fog(?).....lends a very natural feel to the shot. Re it being a female, I understood that the most prevalent are males (all white) and juveniles (heavy brown barring) and less so females who generally stay home (ie Arctic tundra). Could this be a juvie? We've seen 4 locally this winter since November. Lots of reports that other sightings in the area showed fairly emaciated birds (starving) when they 1st arrived but now apparently recovering well....when left alone!

[Vince Maidens]

Hey Russ

No this is a female, you can easily tell the difference with markings and the size difference. Males are much smaller in comparison. We have more females than males so far this year and all look pretty healthy. They are feeding pretty well due to the amount of prey in the fields around here.

This is likely a younger female however, you can see some brown in the markings still.