Ottawa is a pretty big city (935,000 or so plus another 276,000 on the Quebec side). But it is surprisingly close to nature as I've blogged before. Just how close? Well its not unheard of for wild animals like elk, moose or even bear to occasionally wander in. I've never come across one of these animals in the city myself, but it happens frequently enough that it only makes page 10 of the news (or maybe page 2 on a slow day!).
But this past weekend I was lucky enough to have my own wild sighting. I was driving Margot across the Ottawa river when, just as we were crossing the Champlain Bridge, a few people with crazy sophisticated cameras looking at the trees. I didn't think too much about it but I made a mental note to check it out if they were still there when we returned.
Sure enough, two hours later, an even bigger crowd was standing around pointing cameras at the trees next to the bridge. This time we were ready! We did a quick u-turn and found some parking and wandered over to check out what the fuss was about.
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| What you lookin' at? |
It didn't take me long to realize that a Great Horned Owl was perched overhead.
Even better, a baby Great Horned Owl was looking down at us from a smaller tree.
I've actually been bird watching for close to 12-years now and I have never seen a Great Horned Owl before so I was super excited. Let me tell you, they are big! And the little guys are just cute angry-looking little bundles of feathers!
Unfortunately I only had my cell-phone camera, but even from far away I could make out the distinctive tuffs of ears and knew that I had snagged bird number 169 on my life list.
I still find it hard to believe that I would see one of Canada's fiercest birds of prey only 3 km from my house and within the city boundaries!
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