As a wildlife photographer, Brendon Clark sees his fair share of owls, but one recent sighting left him speechless.

"I just thought my mind was kind of playing a trick on me," Clark said. "I saw the black eyes and the beak of a barn owl. I couldn't believe it."

The barn owl isn't native to Alberta and is seldom seen anywhere in Canada, let alone in a place far beyond the bird's natural Canadian range, which is small parts of Ontario and British Columbia.

Clark had been looking for a long-eared owl, a bird considered relatively common in Alberta, in a southeast Calgary park on Nov. 20 when some loud ravens alerted him to the presence of the much rarer species.

"When it looked at me, it was like a movie," Clark said. "It was so surreal."

Calgary wildlife photographer Brendon Clark had b

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