A Snowy Owl Birding Adventure

I went birding with my friends, Carl and Mary, in upstate New York. We heard about a Snowy Owl spotted near Seneca, New York. We saw multiple photos of the Snowy Owl posted on eBird…

The owl was cool, but his backdrop was not very flattering.

Before traveling to locate the owl, we did a little bird searching near Seneca Lake. A birder posted that he had seen some Sand Hill Cranes earlier that week. Would we see some? Nope… no cranes.

Next, we drove to a different area where previously others had reported seeing Snow Geese. We pulled to the side of the road. Yes, there were geese in the distance… Canadian geese and some white geese mingled within them. Could they be Snow Geese? Again, no. They proved to be some swans.

Snowy Owl Number One

So, onward we traveled to Seybolt Road to find our Snowy Owl.

We arrived and could see the Snowy Owl at a distance. Yes, he was effectively camouflaged by his chosen background, perching himself on some industrial “eyesore” in the middle of a field.

We could see him using our binoculars, but it was very challenging to take a photo… it wasn’t the distance between the owl and the road… It was the white backdrop that made it difficult to focus in on his whiteness. But what the heck? It was a snowy owl. I had never seen one “in person” before!

We were thrilled, nonetheless. A snowy owl! Nice!

We continue our search…

Next, we tried to see what we could see at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, usually a active place for bird watching, especially eagles. As we may have expected, most of the trails were gated for the winter…

Carl had an idea that we should visit some short-eared owls up near Lake Ontario in Jefferson County. They had always “showed up” at the right time every time they had visited the spot.

On our way there, we had the pleasure of seeing a bald eagle perched in a tree overlooking the stream that flowed under the NY State Thruway near Montezuma…

But we were in a rush… it would take nearly 45 minutes to reach the owl location… we knew our daylight hours were limited.

As we neared our back road destination, Mary commented to Carl, “Back up, honey… I think I just saw a Snowy Owl in a field.

Snowy Owl Number Two

Carl stopped, put the car in reverse and to our delight, there was a lovely Snowy Owl sitting in a cornfield. And what made it extra nice, he wasn’t so far away that we could get some good photographs of him.

We did have one glitch… his back was turned to us. Carl started making some interesting sounds and the owl turned his head… yes, without moving his body, he turned his head completely around to see where the noise was coming from!

Happily, we were able to get some nice shots of him – yes, it is a “him” … The males are nearly all white while females have markings on them.

Searching for Short-Eared Owls

We continued to travel to see the short-eared owls. Again, time was of the essence. It was going to be dark soon. They are usually active just before dark.

We arrived in time to get settled. Disappointingly, the short-eared owls never showed up.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset, twilight… no owls.

However, our day was not without the thrill of seeing not one, but two snowy owls!