There is probably a permanent family of Great Horned Owls living in High Park.
I visited the park on a rainy and dark morning hoping to get a photograph of one of these residents.
When I was just about to give up, the loud and raucous calls of two Common Ravens filled the air.
The ravens had found a Great Horned Owl and seemed intent on bullying it out of its roost. I doubt if this ever does more that irritate the owl.
I read that Great Horned Owl hunting tends to peak between 8:30 pm and midnight and then can resume from 4:30 to sunrise. By the middle of the morning they need some sleep. After about ten minutes the ravens gave up.
Other birds:
MAILBOX
Entertaining singing bird
NATURE POETRY
If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went —
Then you may count that day well spent. – George Eliot
Miles Hearn
So perhaps the Snowy Owl I saw ignoring a mink that crossed the ice and came right up to it at Col. Samuel Smith Park right after a group winter morning walk was catching up on its sleep? A bit late though– by the time we finished it was 12:00 p.m. Sleeping in?