It's been two whole weeks since I've been out with my camera and when I saw the crumby weather expected for the weekend, I decided I would cut out of work a little early today to get over to the grasslands. I almost decided not to go because the temps were bitter cold with the morning starting in the single digits and the high being only 24 degrees. After debating if I really wanted to go out there in the cold or not, I decided I needed to suck it up and put on several layers of clothing and just do it. Thankfully, I did a perfect job at layering up because I was rather comfortable out there in the freezing cold.

I'm extremely happy that I sucked it up and went because I had some nice opportunities with the Northern Harriers and the Short-eared Owls. Generally the owls don't come up until just before dusk or right at dusk, but today they had other plans and were up at 2:15. They put on one heck of a show chasing each other, chasing the Northern Harrier's and I had one chasing a Crow. The one chasing the crow eventually came really close to me and flew around nearby as well as right over my head. It was so awesome.

I even had one sneak up from behind me and fly right past me. Unfortunately though, it happened so fast that I didn't get a single photo. I'm still in disbelief by how close it was to me! Wow, what a day.

Because I had such a great time with the Short-eared Owls, I thought it was only fitting to do a blog post with one of my shots. What a beauty! I hope you all are enjoying this guy as much as I did today!