This morning the Brampton Photo Group met outside the Mountsberg Conservation Area to prep for our morning photo shoot with the birds of prey. As you may remember we visited this conservation area back in October and had the pleasure of photographing some fine feathered friends. Today we got to see a couple of different birds along with some we had previously enjoyed. I was able to get this shot of the Jazz, the beautiful barn owl, who did not want to sit still.

Stepping Off

We were introduced to a Gyrfalcon by the name of Nahani. She is the largest of the falcon species and seeing her up close and personal was a little daunting. The Gyrfalcon’s actually prey on the Peregrine falcons so you can imagine how big Nahani was.

Gyrfalcon

Nahani is new to the centre and I look forward to seeing her again. Next up were the Northern Sreech Owls. These little guys always remind me of little gremlins. Otis and Echo looked like they had just had some sort of argument. They would not look at each other the entire time except once to give each other a dirty look. It was very amusing.

The Argument

Our session was over too soon but a couple of us hung around to check out the educational show in an enclosed area where they flew Jazz for us. The lovely lady (whose name I didn’t get) also brought out Octavius, the Great Horned Owl and we all enjoyed watching the owl gulp down a dead mouse. The expressions on the owl’s face were hilarious.

Yummy Snack

Did you look closely at the owl’s mouth? Yup, that is the tail of her treat sticking out. That is one contented bird.