ANOTHER SEASON OF WAITING

 

While anticipation is a major theme of the Christmas story, this advent season strikes me another way too.  The Sandhill Cranes have left and I’m awaiting the arrival of the Snowy Owls.

The earliest I’ve ever seen a Snowy was on November 29.  Last December 7th, I saw this female atop one of the buildings at the marina.  She wasn’t asleep.  Her third eyelid was up to protect her from the sunshine that day.

 

 I’ve been to the marina several times already this year and have only seen empty rooftops and shrink-wrapped sailboats with their bare masts.  No fluffy white visitors.  Yet.

 

 In past years, I’ve also seen Snowy Owls atop the roofs of homes in a local golf course development.  In 2019, this female delightfully posed for the camera.  She changed positions often and spent a good hour performing for me.

 

 But no Snowy Owls there this year.  So far.  The neighborhood is growing and changing.  Row after row of new houses are going up.  Additional streets are going in.  I wonder what habitats will be left for the owls and other critters.

 

 One place Snowy Owls like to perch is on light posts and telephone poles.  From this vantage point, with their superior vision, they can easily spot the rodents and small mammals that make up their diet.  In 2019, I captured this nearly pure white male doing just that in an industrial park near Chums Corner.

 

 But that park is changing too.  Just two years ago, there was a huge open field with three tall radio towers.  Snowy Owls often perched there watching out for their next meals. 

 

 When I returned to the park after Thanksgiving, the towers and open field were gone, replaced with this huge office building.  And that wasn’t the only new building in the park over this past year.  I’m concerned human growth will encroach on the Snowy Owl habitats and they’ll need to go elsewhere to live and hunt in the winter months. 

 

 As for the arrival of the Snowy Owls to these areas where I've seen them in past years?  Maybe I just need to be more patient.  It’s still early in the season with January and February being when I've seen them most often.  And you never know with Snow Owls when they’ll come and when they’ll leave.  On Memorial Weekend in 2018, when it was 88 degrees, I photographed this Snowy, who’d just snatched a young bird from its nest and was hiding it under her wing.  Patience, Karen, patience.