Do you remember?

I remember the first time I got ice skates, roller skates, a bicycle, and a camera. Yesterday was a first for three of us “Newbie” but nonetheless intrepid birders: Our first snowy owls. 

The thrill of that first sighting will remain with me for the rest of my life I am sure. The next two sightings were nonetheless thrilling. Oh... the tales that were told on that day of "first sightings" of birds, and of birds on our wish list.

It is not every year that these arctic inhabitants grace Eastern Ontario and so when they do the “word” gets out.

Male Snowy owls are barred with dark brown when they’re young and they get whiter as they get older. Females keep some dark markings throughout their lives. Although the darkest males and the palest females are nearly alike in color, the whitest birds—including the ones that played Harry Potter’s Hedwig—are always males and the most heavily barred ones are always females.

Snowy Owls are territorial both in breeding area and in wintering areas (which is good news for me because I will do a return visit). Another "good news for me" feature about these beauties is that they are diurnal and that means they hunt day and night in the arctic and eat more than1600 lemmings per year! 

Snowy Owls are known for travelling far from their nests. From a single Snowy Owl nest on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic, one young bird went to Hudson Bay, one to southeastern Ontario, and one to the far eastern Russian coast. (source: Cornell University)

So - how do Snowy Owls size up with other owls?

Their thick feathers for insulation make Snowy Owls North America’s heaviest owl, typically weighing about 1.8 kilos—one half kilo heavier than the Great Horned Owl and twice the weight of a Great Gray Owl (North America’s tallest owl).

All said, the memory of yesterday spent with jocular friends filled to the brim with excitement on our first sighting, of the camaraderie of high spirited happy “girlish” birders, will be with me every time I look at a snowy owl captured in photograph or seen again live in its beautiful majesty. 

(I wish the quality of my Snowy Owl shots was better than these but had to share “just because”.)

Female Downy

(Apparently) a lone female turkey

Young Snowy