A male Snowy Owl taking in the scenery on a sunny, late winter day.

Love is in the air . . . and it won't be long before we have a clutch in the nest and hopefully, eaglets in April.

Short-eared Owl gets in some evening hunting before the sun slips into the horizon.

Thanks for visiting us this winter, and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

A Short-eared Owl gathers some speed toward the evening sun after diving for a vole.

It was the first time the sun had been out for days, and the temp was finally above 15 degrees, so this beautiful female Snowy Owl was happy to squint for a spell and soak up some rays; maybe next time she'll flash those beautiful yellow eyes . . .

When you've been working on the nest to get it ready for the nesting season, but it's 10 degrees, and the dang snow keeps piling up, you just have to shake it off and do the chilly willies. Swipe to see the animated sequence . . .

As the largest native waterfowl in North America, and with a wingspan of up to 7 to 8 feet, these elegant swans need a lot of room to take off . . . on water that is: Trumpeters cannot take off on land, only on water. . . .

Watching short-eared owls on the hunt is one of life's little joys along the journey . . .

Instead of a golden hour, it was more like a few golden minutes. Tom Skilling said the clouds might break toward the end of the day, but they held tight until the very end when the sun finally emerged from the main cloud layer only to sink into another layer of clouds before it disappeared into the horizon . . .