A special Sunday event, a photographic essay celebrating a few of these magnificent raptors. Not Falcons (nor Patriots), these superb owls hail from Europe, Asia, North and South America, captured in photos both recent and more than a century old. If you have some time today before the big game (or are skipping the event entirely) I invite you to have a look.
A few snowflakes melt on the face of Cloudy, a snowy owl, during the cold blustery winter day at the Buffalo Zoo in Buffalo, New York, on January 28, 2004.#
A man stops to pose for photographs on his motorcycle, carrying his pet owl and dog, as he arrives at an area where Brazilian Socialist Party presidential candidate, Marina Silva, will campaign in the Rocinha slum in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, on August 30, 2014.#
"Hoot Hoot I Scream", an owl-shaped ice cream stand in Los Angeles, California, circa 1930. Apparently the owl's head rotated and its eyes lit up, backed by headlights from a Buick.#
A Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) reacts after being fed at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) center in Amritsar, India, on November 16, 2012. The owl which is rarely seen in this region became entangled in the string of a kite string and was rescued by SPCA members.#
Red Bull driver Mark Webber, of Australia, steers his car past an owl during the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at the Interlagos racetrack in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on November 27, 2011.#
Passers-by take a selfie with owl "Wasabi" perching on the arm of Chihiro Kawamoto, an owl cafe employee, on a street at Harajuku shopping district in Tokyo, on March 6, 2016.#
An eagle-owl, which grew up in captivity, in the Russian Falcon center at the Research Institute for Nature protection in Moscow, on November 18, 2009.#
Boulder County Sheriff’s Deputy Sophie Berman crouches over a small owl, for a brief encounter before the bird flew away, near Rainbow Lakes, outside Nederland, Colorado, on July 21, 2015.#
Dan Walter / Boulder County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Elton the spectacled owl sits on a scale at London Zoo as the zookeepers weigh and measure the animals for their annual weigh-in in London on August 22, 2012.#
A burrowing owl rests on the ninth hole of the Olympic golf course near its nest in a sand bunker during a practice round for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 5, 2016.#
Visitors look at a larger-than-life photograph of a snowy owl, part of an exhibition at the Summer Garden, in St. Petersburg on May 23, 2013. The annual street photo-exhibition, which consists of 60 photos displaying animals and birds listed in the Red Book of Russia, was organized to match the International Day for Biological Diversity introduced by the United Nations General Assembly.#
An owl named "Distinto" flies to her trainer inside a park as part of the birds exercise routine outside a cage at the former Buenos Aires Zoo, Argentina, on July 1, 2016.#
A pair of Great Grey Owls or Lapland Owls sits inside an open air cage at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, on October 6, 2011.#
A Philippine eagle owl (Bubo philippensis) inside the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Rescue Center in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on November 6, 2009.#
An owl flies over the stadium during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier football match between Honduras and Trinidad & Tobago, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on November 15, 2016.#
A Christmas fair in Romania, an enormous indoor ice rink in Paris, a surfing Santa Claus in Australia, a sunset camel safari in India, a cyclo-cross race in Belgium, and much more
I’ve made it an annual tradition to compose an essay of uplifting images from the past 12 months—an effort to seek out and recognize some of the joy and kindness present in the world around us, even in the midst of another tough year.
It’s time to revisit some of the most memorable events and images of 2024, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton striking southeastern United States, a famous pygmy hippo named Moo Deng, and much more.
