This Great Gray Owl was photographed along the edge of Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota. While on our trip with Gail B and Ann P we were mostly skunked by these birds. We saw 4 in total but only this one gave us any photographic opportunities. It was about -11 when we took this and you can see the frost all over the birds eyes. It is amazing how much the color of these birds change when they are viewed in full sun. The thing with these birds is that if they are not baited then they hardly give you even a seconds look and will rarely come down to eye level. I have seen them 5 times now over the years and have yet to have one look at me for more than a split second or 2. We watched this amazing bird for about 25 minutes and I have 2 shots of it looking directly at me. This was taken just as the sun broker over the horizon and before that really warm early morning light washed over the bird. Note that the area on the right side of the undertail must have pigment issues. It it white like that in the RAW as well.
Canon 1DX mark ii and Canon 500 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. ISO 1250, F5.6, SS 1/1600