It snowed here overnight and is still snowing at 10:00 am this morning. We were all hoping that the last of the ice everywhere would get the chance to melt completely before any fresh snow fell to hide the ice. Looks like about 4" of the white stuff has accumulated so far. The temperature is -14C (windchill -19C) but it's supposed to get up to -11C (windchill -16C) this afternoon. We have been so spoilt for weeks now, with temperatures that have been wonderfully mild for mid winter.

This photo was taken on 11 January 2015, when I called in at Fish Creek Park again for some fresh air and, hopefully, find a friend or two. I was lucky with both. It was a Sunday and a lot of photographers had gathered to watch and photograph this tiny, popcan-sized Northern Pygmy-owl.

I was impressed that all the photographers were very respectful of this tiny owl. Since then, there was one day when a couple of photographers with huge lenses were breaking and damaging the bushes because they wanted to get much closer to the owl's tree. Mind you, apart from a couple of very brief, low landings in bushes, the tiny owl stayed perched extremely high in tall trees. Thankfully, it was still within my camera reach and we were all lucky enough to see it perched in a variety of places. Bright blue sky completed the picture, unlike the day before, which had been overcast and gloomy. In this photo, we were treated to a short preening session that resulted in a temporarily puffed ball of feathers.

Later; I've added a previously posted photo from 2011 in a comment box below, showing a Northern Pygmy-owl in compressed mode.