The Snowy Owl has finally flew the Coop

 Unless you don't have electricity coming to your house, it would have been impossible not to know about a Snowy Owl that wintered near Newport. This owl had feature stories done on it by both the Providence Journal and WPRI Channel 12. Besides the newspaper and television channel, the bird was plastered all over Facebook. I am happy to say the Snowy Owl has finally headed north.

   When we see Snowy Owls in southern New England it's because they are hungry. Their food source, for whatever the reason, can not sustain them. The reasons could be a poor rodent year or deep snow. The point is, they are weary travelers. As such, when people approach too close they start to burn much needed calories. Even if they don't fly away, their heart rate increases and the added stress is unhealthy. For these reasons, it is far more important to keep a safe distance than get a killer photo.

    Most of the time when Snowy Owls winter in Rhode Island they hang out in places where they can be viewed at a distance. The very first Snowy I ever saw was at Trustom Pond. It was standing on the rocks in the middle of a pond eating a duck it had just killed. Another great place to see Snowy's is Island Rocks at Sachuet. The rocks are a hundred yards offshore and the owl that hung out there last winter had a virtual all-you-can-eat-duck buffet. These places are perfect to see Snowy Owls without interfering with their resting and feeding routines.

   This owl was different. It had been hurt and rehabilitated by humans. It had no fear of people like normal Snowy Owls. The First time I saw it, I was the only birder around. It was on a log on a gravelly beach. I was up above it on a small cliff. I took some halfway decent photos. As I was walking away, I saw an older couple on the beach looking for rocks and seaglass. They were getting far too close to the owl but they didn't even see it. As they got to within 30 feet and my heart was racing, I yelled down to them to "Please don't get too close to the owl". My voice scared the owl away, and I felt terrible that I was the reason it wasted calories. To the defense of the couple, they had not seen it until it flew. They were not purposely infringing on its personal space.

   That night I vowed not to bother the owl again. I got some decent photos during the day. A few days after I saw the owl, it took up residence at the Visitor Center. Everyday it would perch right above people that filled the parking area to get a photo. I was sick to my stomach thinking about this poor bird. With all these people so close, how could it hunt? When would it rest? Sometimes it would fly down right next to the road and perch on a No Parking sign. You can imagine how close the photographers got to it then.

The owl stayed in the area of the Visitor Center for months. Every local (and non-local) idiot would come for a photo. The parking lot was like Black Friday at Walmart. Cars coming, going, and stopping on the access road if the owl was on the sign. Although I vowed not to disturb the owl, I still wanted to walk the trails there. I was in the midst of a disappointing search to find Purple Sandpiper. Besides Beavertail and Napatree which I was also striking out at, this place used to have a flock of wintering Purples.

I won't pretend that a Snowy Owl isn't an amazing creature. It is up there with Puffins, California Condors, and Whopping Cranes as birds everyone wants to see. Even non-birders want to see a Snowy Owl. So when I would go to this place, I would stop for a minute or three and watch it. Most of the time it was sitting either on the roof or in tall grass doing nothing. Two minutes is enough to admire a sleeping animal. However, my issue was with the photographers that would go and watch this owl day in and day out. Some of these people would tell me "I was here six hours yesterday, I got within fifteen feet of it". Another one I heard was "I've been here three days straight and yet to get a decent flight shot. These people were not birders, they were photographers. And quite frankly, two minutes watching these people made me sick and it was time to go.

Seeing such a beautiful creature shouldn't be so easy. I'd usually see it for a half mile away while driving in. Seeing wildlife as majestic as a Snowy Owl should take either some effort or at least luck. It felt way to cheap to walk right under it to go use the restroom. To be surrounded by all those photographer whores even for a few minutes felt dirty. Since I got my Purple Sandpiper on Block Island, I have not been back.

There is no doubt that this Snowy Owl made hundreds if not thousands of people happy. We will never know the number of people who got to cross seeing a Snowy Owl off their bucket list. It seems as though it made it through the winter healthy. It was hunting, and frequently landed in the grass to catch mice and voles only feet from where the cars were parked. From what I read, people were respectful of the owl's personal space. This owl's "personal space" is/was far smaller than most Snowy's. It seemed to be comfortable around people, which made me feel a lot better about its chances of survival.


So, Godspeed to you Snowy Owl. If you come back south again, please find a different location. I will be quite comfortable never seeing another Snowy Owl.

Here are a few photos of the owl. No need to think "wow" or "amazing". As I said, these photos were too easy and cheap to come by. Normally, I have everything on this blog copyrighted. However, for this post I give permission to download, copy, or steal any pictures of the owl you may want. That way, if you see a snowy owl that prefers to keep their distance from humans, you won't need to take "one more step closer" because you will already have pictures of a Snowy Owl.

Please, NEVER,NEVER, try to get a picture of any owl on your cell phone. These were taken with a 500 mm lens and cropped, even the ones on the No Parking sign (and my car was a blind, until I could get through to the parking area).

I was stuck in traffic to get to the
parking lot because it was sitting
right along the road.