Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus richardsonii)

A friendly Boreal Owl from our backyard.

One day in early February, my 6 year old son, Taiga, and I were playing outside in our backyard. I didn't notice this pretty fellow perched on a branch of a spruce, 7 feet above the ground, until we were about 8 feet from it. It was a friendly owl, and it didn't seem to care too much about us. I went inside to get a camera, but when I was approaching it, I was moving too fast with a monopod, and I spooked it. Taiga got to watch it from a really close distance for at least 5 minutes. He even observed it pooping. We kept looking for the owl for a couple days after that, but we eventually forgot about it. Then when we were playing in the front yard (I actually took these photos on Feb 27), Taiga suddenly said that I saw something flying and it could be an owl. So I followed Taiga to the direction of the flight. And there it was, we found it perched on the exact same branch (9 feet from our bedroom window). This time, I moved really slow, and didn't use a monopod. It wasn't too worried about us again. Well, it didn't seem to like the flash too much and gave us a puzzled look. After taking a hundered or so photos, we decided to let it have a peace.

It is wonderful to know that this magnificent creature is letting us share its territory. BTW, my son's name means "Boreal forest".


Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus richardsonii) on Flickr


Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus richardsonii) on Flickr

 

Thanks, Chuck & Kelly. Yes, they are amazing, this one is cute at about 8" (20cm) long, though!