From Melvin Legge

If any of you have been following me for while, you know I am very much against unethical wildlife photography - I don’t bait, I shoot snowys and shorties from the road and I don’t go into fields to stress them - often meaning I have to compromise image quality.

Christmas Eve morning my patience, stubbornness, karma, whatever, paid off. I went to the area where the snowys hang out - the country road was not even plowed. As soon as I turned onto the road, a snowy that was flying across the field landed on a fence post right beside the road. I stopped the car but before I could get out, it flew away. I looked to my left and another was coming across the field and landed on the same post!

I walked to within a respectful distance (shooting with 840mm equivalent and the full wingspread did not quite fill the frame when flying). The snowy stayed there in the quiet snowfall and let me take several photos of her perched.

I noticed a snowplow coming from the opposite direction and thought this could be interesting. As the snowplow got closer, the owl flew from its perch, away from the snowplow and straight towards me and the one other guy that was there, and then across the field.

All to say I was a very happy boy that morning. I got quite a few great shots and no harassment of the owl. Enjoy