After four years, a great look at a Snowy Owl

A 1st year Snowy Owl was sighted two weeks ago during a Christmas Bird Count in the Bartlesville, Oklahoma area. The sighting, and the bird’s daily activities, became the hot topic on the OKBirds listserv. An incredible opportunity for a birder! But I was too busy with projects for clients and was (and am) involved with my father’s ongoing hospitalization. What a challenge! A rare and incredible migrant owl had made its way from the far north country to the prairie grasslands of Oklahoma — would I miss the chance to photograph this bird?!

The only other time I’d seen a snowy owl was in early January 2002. My husband and I traveled to Foss Lake in Clinton in hopes of finding one that had been spotted in the area. We actually located the bird but, as novice birders, found our binoculars were useless since the owl was sitting in the middle of a pasture. To us it looked like a white trash sack. Needless to say, we purchased a spotting scope right after that trip. I didn’t want to ever miss a chance of watching a rare bird for lack of affordable optics!

So here it was, four years later — another snowy owl in the state — I had to make the time to see it. After working during the Christmas holiday weekend, I cleared an entire day on the calendar and Terri Underhill and I headed out yesterday in search of this magnificent owl. Every report made it seem like the bird was always sitting near the road. We thought we’d literally drive right up to it. Oh, the despair and disappointment when we couldn’t find the bird after an hour. We connected with an Arkansas birder searching for the same bird… he decided to take a break from the search and headed to Copan Reservoir in search of White-winged Scoters; we were taking our time (not liking the idea of failure) when he called to say he found the snowy owl by finding another birder who was photographing the bird. We ended up with a traffic jam in the middle of a country road. Birders rule!

The bird was sitting low in the grass, staying out of 30 mph north winds. Great to find the bird but not the greatest photo opportunity. A hundred photos later, we drove away in search of Bald Eagles but backtracked within an hour and found the snowy owl in a spot that was easier to access. The lack of “no trespassing” signs spurred us to walk through a pasture and get within 50 feet of the owl. She posed beautifully in the late afternoon sun!

Seeing a rare migrant owl is an incredible event. It’s tempered, however, by the fact that she only traveled this far south because she couldn’t find adequate prey in the northern states and was forced to go far beyond the snowy owl’s traditional wintering grounds. This doesn’t bode well for the bird. (And there are indications the bird may have been injured, another discouraging sign.) “The Sibley Guide to Birds” makes note of these concerns: ” (Snowy Owls) seen far to the south of normal range are often starved and stressed for food, and thus active in daylight. Healthy birds are mainly nocturnal, like other owls.” My joy in having seen and photographed this rare bird is certainly diminished by my awareness of its precarious state. Until I hear otherwise, however, I’m going to imagine that this one will beat the odds!