SJA, that's a completely unedited photo from my phone, in late afternoon overcast light. It was a female cardinal kill. The imprint was very clean. With a little editing, it could be made to pop like the OP picture. Snow type also plays a huge factor. Wet, fluffy, hard, dry all makes for very different impressions.

Highly doubt that editing would make the OP's pic look real. There's too much missing in his pic. Many people "see" something, but don't observe :-)

I think that the op is totally legit if you look closely you can see where the wings pulled back in when it pushed off.

I think they hear them, like a fox does

Nope. Observe the differences between the two pics. Tell me what you see and don't see in both of them.

So, all bird's of pray move and react the same way?
You are way off base on this one

I don't know how or why any one would bother to Make a fake picture, snow doesn't lie

Very nice pictures.

Wanna see some Bigfoot pics in the snow? . . . they're on FB so they must be real :-)

Ya'll can suit yourselves on the Owl pics.

I like to put voices to members posts.
When I read your post
I hear your avatar speaking.
Just sayin

Guess some birds don’t have tail feathers and can sweep up in the same exact spot it swooped down without brushing any snow.
The second pic looks more realistic to me than the first.