Well, it was actually for the bird WATCHERS: Ted and son #2, who travelled to Logan Lake for a couple of days to bond with nature, each other, and some fledging Great Grey Owls that had the North American bird-watching world all a-flutter.

Apparently these birds are so rare that wildlife enthusiasts from as far away as Utah made the trek to British Columbia’s Tunkwa Provincial Park, about halfway between Merritt and Kamloops, just for a chance to photograph them.

While Ted will say that his photos are not nearly as good as those son#2 took with his long lens and young eyes, I think they’re still pretty darn great.

I’m not sure I’d have gotten out of bed at 04:30 in hopes of catching feeding time (early alarms in my case are reserved for early flights unrelated to birds), but father and son seem to have found it worthwhile.

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The wild red-capped #2 at work.

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Just for good measure, three of my favourite owl photos of the 700+ photos that son#2 took:

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Besides the owls, there were other birds, a too cute for words yellow-bellied marmot, and – although there’s no photographic evidence – free-range steer.

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And the not-a-bird.

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After the guys got home and rested, we also went out for dinner at a favourite Vancouver city centre Italian restaurant as a whole family to cap off the weekend. The food was light-years better than my dad’s long-standing Father’s Day tradition of charred t-bone steaks delicately scented with lighter fluid and charcoal. That said, this month marks 20 years without him, and he is still missed, even though his grilling skills are not.