These photos of this beautiful family of great grey owls were shot over the course of two days. This was probably our most exciting, adrenaline filled wildlife shoot we have to date. Owls are so incredibly elusive and hard to find, and great grey owls are even more rare to come across.

We have been visiting this area on and off over the years, and have had such good luck photographing these great greys. This particular year, we got incredibly lucky with shots from this straight-on ground perspective, because this chick had fallen out of the nest, and both its parents were coming down to the forest floor to feed it.

These photos were shot from two different cameras, as my husband and I were standing at different perspectives relative to the owls. The first photo shown in this series, with the direct perspective of the adult and outspread wings was taken by myself. I had my camera sitting on the tripod for hours, pointed at the chick. As nothing much was happening, I decided to sit in the car for a couple of hours to knit a sweater. Within two minutes of coming back to my camera, all this action happened, along with a lot of “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god”s exclaimed in shock and utter frenzy.

We were just shaking with excitement! To witness the parents passing the food between each other, and one parent trying to feed the chick, ultimately giving up, and passing the food back to the other parent instead so they can try to feed the chick (the ultimate “no, I don’t want you to feed me I want mom (or dad) to feed me scenario); all this owl behavior that we never get to witness was just so incredible to watch right before our eyes!