A Great Day Outside (to see a Snowy Owl)

My friend Dick Durand was on a mission to see a Snowy Owl this year. He had never seen one. I offered to take him to a place in Rhode Island where one has been regularly seen this winter. I had Thursday and Friday off from work this week. We planned on going Thursday because the weather forecast was far better for Thursday than Friday. I picked Dick up late enough to go through Providence after rush hour.

What was a decent forecast turned into a fine winter day. The wind was from the southwest bringing in 45 degree air. For half of our walk the land protected us from the ocean breeze. Even when walking into it, the temperature was very pleasant. We couldn't have expected a nicer day.

We went to a place where a Snowy has been wintering offshore on a rock. Unfortunately it wasn't there. We stuck it out for twenty minutes. finally we decided to go for a hike. As we were walking around a huge field a couple pointed out a snowy about 60 feet away in the field. We admired it for 30 minutes from the path.  It was not bothered by our presence at all. It would look our way, then look in other directions also.  In the binoculars and scope we cold see every feather of the beautiful bird. Even with just our eyes, we were close enough to have good looks.

A Word about Owls-

Of all the birds in the Northeast, owls can easily be stressed out by humans getting too close. They try to conserve energy so they allow humans (mostly photographers) to get too close to them. Even though they are not flying they get stressed out. Their heart rate and body temp go up like ours does when afraid. This burns precious calories they are trying to conserve.  Eventually the human gets too close and the owl will fly. Again, burning too many calories. This can and has lead to dead owls. A Snowy Owl died this winter in Rhode Island because people were harassing it trying to get the perfect picture.

Because owls are so easily stressed I did not try to get the perfect picture of the owl. We stayed on the trail. I'm sure I could have gotten to within 25 feet and gotten a frame filling photo. Once the owl flew I could have gotten more photos of it flying. However it is not worth it when it is at the expense of the subject. This is the reason I did not wrote the location of the owl. Too many people look for the perfect picture. Trust me, I want it also. However, when it comes to owls, it is best to check your ego in the parking lot for their sake.

After we watched the owl, we started walking down the trail. In  five steps Dick noticed two deer right next to us. One was an adult female, the other a yearling. They were practically within arm's length of us casually munching on twigs. I got some pictures of the larger female.

I told Dick if we didn't see any Snowy Owls a nice consolation prize are the Harlequin Ducks that winter on the coast. Dick enjoys nature but isn't a birder. I wasn't going to bore him with every species we saw, but the Harlequins beauty does rival a Wood Duck. We found a few five minutes before we saw the owl. 

After we got back to the car we went to Becky's BBQ in Middletown for lunch. The food was delicious and we met a surf fisherman and had a good conversation with him.

All in all it was a great day to be outside. I'm glad Dick got to see his Snowy Owl. In my years of birding, I never had such a great look at any owl. We watched it without disturbing it for as long as we wanted. Then to have the deer photoshoot within feet of us was icing on the cake.