A B.C. woman can count herself lucky after she spotted a large owl species rare to Vancouver Island.
On Jan. 19, the woman contacted the Facebook group Comox Valley Wildlife Sightings with a video of the bird of prey.
“We received this video from a page follower, who wishes to remain anonymous, and shared it to our family-run page,” says Nicky Smiley, who runs the page with her daughter Ella Smiley.
People started chiming in trying to identify the owl.
"Once we received a few comments saying it was a Great Grey, our amazing network got together to confirm with bird experts that this was for sure a Great Grey and how rare they are to Vancouver Island," says Smiley.
They decided to conceal the exact location of where the owl was spotted.
"We reposted so that others could enjoy the video but specified that the location would not be disclosed,” says Smiley.
The Canadian Raptor Conservancy states the Great Grey Owl is also called a Lapland Owl and describes it as very large and distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. The adults have a big round head with a grey face and yellow eyes with darker circles around them.
The wildlife sightings page has more than 15,000 people following it and many people commented on the video saying how beautiful the creature is.
"So many amazing beings out there and with this page and the community all networking to share sightings more people are getting to enjoy them,” says Smiley.
