Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Snowy Owls Overwinter at Boundary Bay Airport, British Columbia

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https://youtu.be/4EXTuFfxe5c  [5:43 minutes]

The 4K Guy - Fire / Police / EMS
Published on Dec 14, 2011
This brought back special memories for me. While I was living in North Vancouver, I kept my Cessna 172D based at the CZBB - Boundary Bay Airport, since rebuilt, a Snowy Owl winter habitat. Learn way more, also here.
The Snowy Owls - Canadian Nature Photographer Hyperlink, have the best flying characteristics and instincts I have ever seen.
It was the birds who made certain to keep my airplane out of their flight path; it was they who made certain there was no flight path conflict, ever.  Of course some bird species are very small; sometimes too small for a pilot to see.  During my ownership, CF-MJN never encountered one 'bird strike', ever.
In the north I would sometimes find myself in the middle of a migratory bird flyway. During basic my flight training, I don't recall ever been told to avoid migratory bird routes: south for the winter, north for the coming of spring. 
Once from the Chilcotin to Vancouver, flying south through the Fraser Canyon at 5,000 feet, in the middle of a migratory flyway in October, there were ducks, geese and all manner of migratory birds, all around . Those birds were flying much slower than my 100 knots. There were perhaps 10,000 or so: to my port, to my starboard, above and below. I knew that if I made any sudden move, it would only confuse them. So, straight ahead, level flight. The birds did all of the collision avoidance required; they would just drop and weave, always avoiding my flight path. Whew ! I never knew that before. My suspicion is that an aircraft travelling at a very high speed within a flyway zone might not be so fortunate. Even a slower airplane doing 'air work' – practising aggressive maneuvers, wing stalls, etc. might get into trouble, if the birds don't get a chance to react in time.
https://youtu.be/4EXTuFfxe5c [5:43 minutes]
Published on Dec 14, 2011
Boundary Bay snowy owls arrived a month ago and have been seen hunting in large numbers in the marsh near the south end of 72nd Ave in Delta, BC. As of yesterday, Dec 12, more than 20 could still be seen within two square km. Camera is Canon 550D/T2i with Tamron 18-270mm at 30fps in 1080p. Video encoded with Premiere CS5 in mp4 at 15 mbps.

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