With several incidents recently being reported in Regina of snowy owls being hit by vehicles, we checked with local wildlife photographer, Todd white. Owls are, after all, his favourite.

"Owls are always one of my big loves, and the reason why I go out to look for wildlife in general," shared White. "I'm trying to get photographs of, you know, owls 24-seven if I can, but of course, now is the time for snowy owls, and they are definitely in abundance."

As for the reports, he said it was a busy area, and people are not likely expecting to have to watch for owls.

"I think seven owls were hit, and six of them all died, and I believe it was near a construction site. I never seem to have owls that close to me. If anything, they'll be sitting out in the field watching you," he noted.  

"I think one of the great things about snowy owls too, is they hunt during the daytime, so they're very busy in the day as well, so you get to watch that. But yes, unfortunately that does happen. It happens with deer, it happens with moose, it happens with all wildlife, unfortunately."

White said he doesn't think the owl population is all that unusual, as he always sees an abundance of them in winter.

"I see quite a few every single time I go out. so I just think it's the natural, you know, movement of them coming south through the winter time."

He said in winter, a good number of the owls are 'transient' owls, who are still moving south, "so the owls that are coming right now are not typically the owls that I think are stay here all winter long."

He said if the owls are here in January, they're our usual owls.

"I was guiding a gentleman from British Columbia," shared White. "He flew in to stay here and and go to see snowy owls for three days with me, and we had a great number of owls, not just snowy owls, great horned owls and short eared owls as well. We had a high count of 42 owls in the one day and 70 owls over three days period that he was here.

So it's not like we're seeing just one owl and photographing it and watching it over and over. We drive quite a bit over, you know, six hours a day, and see them in the surrounding area."

And it's not just owls, either.

"There's there's lots of mule deer around, very, very plentiful. Yesterday I had a count of seven moose. Lots of antelope, pronghorn, around, white tailed deer around, fox, coyotes, and you'll see the odd badger still out right now, and a few hawks are still hanging around as well, so there's definitely a plenty of wildlife that could be seen when you get off the major roads."

Nonetheless, it's the snowy owl that attracts tourists from across the globe to our landscapes.

"I have two gentlemen, hopefully coming in from Singapore, and the snowy owl just has a big allure to it, you know, it's just a majestic animal that most people just don't get to see," he commented.

Those hours on the road are mostly spent shooting straight from the truck. 

"So we're not getting out," he said. "I mean, once in a while you get out and see one in the field and maybe stand in the ditch and get a little bit closer, but typically we're shooting right out the truck window."

He said he has observed some interesting interactions between different species of owls, and it's things like this that make all the driving worthwhile.

"We know that  there's another one down the road, so we just kind of move along and go see what we can find," he shared. "It's all about the the journey of trying to see what you see in a day."

While it's an expensive hobby, White noted, anyone who wants to take advantage of shooting wildlife without all the blood and guts that follows from using a rifle may want to make just such an investment.

"You you need a good sized lens to get to them. I'm using a 500 millimeter Nikon lens so it gives me the ability to keep my distance from them and still get a good shot."

"There's so much to be seen, and the majority of people just pass through on the number one highway and they don't really stop to get off the busy roads to actually have a look at what's going on, because there's just all kinds of wildlife. Like, I can see moose every day, and I can see a great horned owl every single day.

So I mean, it's a real blessing to be able to have this wildlife around us."