Snowy Owl

Every few years, often when the lemming population is sparce, the Snowy Owl makes a foray southward from its home in the Arctic. It goes searching for food and has been spotted in places as far away as Alabama and Georgia. It’s journey is called irruptive, and birders often wait to see unusual visitors from the north.

The Snowy Owl is the heaviest of all the owls, weighing in at four pounds, compared with just over three pounds for the Great Horned owl. The wingspan of the Snowy Owl is five feet!

About ten days ago a Snowy Owl was spotted at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, formerly known at the Mt. Comfort airport.  I have birded at the airport before; in fact I got my first view of the Upland sandpiper at this airport.  I learned of the bird at the airport on Sunday evening, so by Monday morning I was there, in the rain.  Nobody else was, and I did not see the owl. But I went back in the afternoon and was able to see it.  The next day I was there again, and the owl was sitting on a nearby building.  Twice in the next several days I went again, and yesterday (Saturday) the owl was sitting in a field and I was able to get the other photograph.

Here is what John Stott wrote about the Snowy Owl when he finally got the opportunity to see one. “How can I capture in words the excitement of sitting in a hide, or blind, for hour after hour only a few yards from the bird of my dreams?!  . . . It was a fantastic experience to eavesdrop on the domestic life of this majestic but elusive bird. She stared at me (although of course she could not see me), and I stared back. I could even watch mosquitos crawling on her feathered face until she blinked and shook her head vigorously to dislodge them. One of her eight white eggs had hatched, and another followed two days later.”  (taken from The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical Lessons from a Lifelong Bird-watcher, page 32).

The Snowy owl—a great Christmas present to be sure.