2nd Snowy Owl of the year...

 

Photos by BarrytheBirder

This is the 2nd Snowy Owl I have seen and photographed this year.

I spotted it on a trip north of Newmarket, on the Ravenshoe Sideroad, near the southern tip of Lake Simcoe.   It was about 100 metres from me and I slowly moved towards it while taking pictures.   I got to about 10 to 15 metres before it decided to move down the line of old utility poles.  I didn't follow it and I was happy to get the pictures you see here.  I spotted three abandoned Osprey nests in the marsh at the end of the Ravenshoe Road, which I will return to in the spring in hopes of the Ospreys returning to these spots.   One of the nests was atop a pole in centre field at a neighbourhood baseball diamond while another was atop the end of a massive irrigation rig at the edge of the marsh (see below).

The photo at right shows a nearby mailbox decorated with a hemp leaf.   A few hemp greenhouses are to be found these days in the Holland Marsh, to the south, as well as a  monster-sized one, here in the Ravenshoe Marsh.  Both marijuana and cannabis are forms of hemp.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder