Awwww :-(

Have any of you ever had the pleasure of seeing a Snowy Owl ? Some other names for the Snowy Owl are Snow Owl, Arctic Owl, Great White Owl, Ghost Owl, Ermine Owl, Tundra Ghost....so on and so on. Anyways around here, I have had the pleasure of seeing them fly around from time to time. I see them perched on the street light, sitting in the fields ( usually out by the airport ) or perched on the light posts that guide the airplanes onto the runway. The hills and the mountains and of course the farmers field's out near the airport is the best place to see them. Well this morning hubby and I were driving out to his shop and unfortunately came across one on the highway. I guess he or she swooped down to low and got hit. It was quite sad . They are very big and very pretty. I was a little saddened throughout the morning. The one we saw was very similar to the spotted one here ( above ) so I decided to do some research and find out a few things about them from the internet. For example,..." A distinctive white Owl, their overall plumage is variably barred or speckled with thin, black, horizontal bars or spots. Females and juveniles are more heavily marked than males - adult males may be almost pure white, although they have up to three tail bands. Adult females are distinctly barred throughout, and have from four to six tail bands. Immatures are very heavily barred throughout, and dark spotting may codominate or dominate the overall plumage. Intensity of dark spotting varies with the sex of the immatures, females being the darkest. Juveniles are uniformly brown with scattered white tips of down.".....

So I guess the one we saw was a female, or a young juvenile. They certainly are a beautiful bird. Especially if you see a few of them together flying low. It is quite an experience. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the small lesson on the Snowy Owl :-)

.....by the way, the pictures were taken from the internet, not by me personally. I do have 2 pictures but I took them with my cell phone and could not get close enough to share a good picture of them. Take care. Cheers !!

The Snowy Owl

Like a silent whisper the snowy owl flew into a winter wilderness
A thin shallow mist stretched over part of an icy lochan
A narrow stretch of pine trees laden with snow stopped close to the waters edge
In front of her the snowy owl saw the panoramic view of twin mountains, features softened with heavy snowfalls
This white illumination of timeless wonder and beauty was home to the snowy owl
As silently she had come silently she went
Tomorrow would be just another day

a collection of poems by David Morin