There is a snowy owl hanging out in Orange County, Ca.

I love the interplay of texture and pattern—his coat, he roof.

The penultimate one especially.

The light was pretty dingy today, but it did happen to improve for that shot.

great pics!

Thanks for posting.

What gorgeous photos! You really caught a portrait in grandeur in that collection, Grumpy Old Guy.

have such a magnificant bird near you.

Some folklore: https://www.atshq.org/snowy-owl-symbolism/

I never thought I'd be photographing a snowy owl this week.

Awesome. Congrats.
And you used up your 2022 luck, just in time.
2023 will be even better.

he's had it with the cold.

She is a national phenomenon right now.

irruption year when there's a shortage of lemmings, their main food source in the Arctic, and young breeding owls head south in search of food. There was a large irruption about 10 years ago and there were hundreds of snowy sightings in Pennsylvania. There was a sighting last winter a few miles from my home, but the owl had moved on before I could grab my camera and drive to the site.

I've never sighted one in the wild, much less have gotten a photo, and here the guy from Los Angeles gets shots of a snowy practically in his backyard! (sarcasm) Congratulations, Grumpy, you got some great shots of a species not seen in your neck of the woods in over 100 years!

I hope the spectators are being respectful of the owl and the neighborhood.

And so far the neighbors seem happy with all the attention.

I never thought I would be dropping everything to be photographing a snowy owl this week

I have at least three owl species in the back yard. They get up in the trees and screech at each other in the middle of the night.

Scares the peewaddlins out of me.

She coughed it up a few minutes before I captured these photos