Barred Owl Chows Down on Mole in SE Burnaby

We heard a Barred Owl call during our afternoon walk in Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby. We looked for it, and eventually spotted it high in a tree. It sat there staring at us, while we stood there enjoying its beauty for several minutes.

We then realized it had caught a mole, and it began to nonchalantly shred and eat it as we watched. We didn’t hang around as we didn’t want to potentially disturb the owl’s meal.

A nature show right in “our backyard!”

barred owl eat mole
Unfortunately I got only a few usable shots out of about a hundred taken with my pocket Canon 720HS. I was hand-holding at max 40X optical zoom, and had the ISO boosted to 1600, both factors limiting image quality.

Here’s a wide shot to show how high up it was.

Barred Owl Byrne Creek