14 January 06

Hedwig Visits Davis

Snowy Owl The snowy owl, first spotted yesterday about 12 miles south of our house by local birder Joan Humphrey, has stuck around for another day. I saw the bird yesterday, heading to the spot with four other folks from my lab, and this morning I returned with Pica. The bird was eventually refound a couple miles north of the original spot and was hunkering near a white motorhome amidst some farm equipment. Above is my sketch of the scene; it was pouring rain so I sketched from within the car. Since our outing was successful, Pica called her Mum who came out here from Bodega Bay for the owl. They saw it this afternoon, a life bird for Pica’s Mum!

Posted by at 08:39 PM in Critters | Link |
  1. You LUCKY things! A snowy owl of all owls to find….I would be happy just to see ANY owl in the wild!
    — Jenny    14. January 2006, 23:11    Link
  2. Boo hoo! I mean… congratulations!
    — rjhall    15. January 2006, 20:38    Link
  3. Haunting birds, aren’t they. I saw, only once, a snowy owl on Plum Island, when I was living in Boston. It was sitting on a distant sand dune and with that lovely light of New New England beaches, seemed more like a ghost than a bird. And so HUGE! It only lasted about five minutes before it was off… didn’t even get a chance to really see it fly, because the sand dune obscured it.

    I’ve only seen four owls in my life… when I was a boy traveling to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut I glimpsed a great horned owl on top of a barn. Then in Oregon I saw a screech owl in its nest. In the White Mountains of New Hampshire I saw a short-eared owl balanced on a twig above me in the forest at night. And the snowy. Would love to see more…
    — Miguel Arboleda    17. January 2006, 20:41    Link

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