Nice series. I never seem to see them with eyes open.
Perhaps the cloudy day helped; not too much glare. It was sunny in the morning; however when I went to the park after lunch it was already overcast.
Glad you got them Dinu. Nice shots.
How far away was he?
Ramesh, the nearest I got to the owl was perhaps 70-80 ft; D800 crop factor helped. She was sitting on one of the mounds at the south side of the drive testing office. Occasionally she would take off; once chased a Kestrel around and other times she flew to the hilly area to the south and then came back to the mound to sit down. A woman from Japan, who is visiting her daughter in Toronto, also showed up very much at the same time I did. Both of us enjoyed the bird going with her activities and then coming back to sit on one of the mounds close to us. May be she was enjoying our company as much as we did of hers.
Good catch, I went there couple of times for snow owl without any luck, so I have to go to St Catherine for my first snow owl shot.:-)
I think it is a adult female.
Jim, I went to Downsview a week earlier; however, I didn't see the bird that day. Instead I saw quite a few Kestrels at the same location. I guess one of these days you will be just as lucky to see her; many sightings of her in that location have been reported. She blends very well with the background and thus will be hard to spot if you don't know where to look. Start looking up to see if she is flying around and then follow her to see where she sits. Good luck.
