An elusive bird I had not seen before. Always on my mind that I would love to see and photograph one, but they just don’t show every day. It’s winter here in Nova Scotia, and I’m getting bored of Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, Long-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Mergansers, and Common Loons. Don’t get me started on Cormorants and Gulls.
Snowy owls nest in the high arctic and venture down south in the winter, visiting Nova Scotia frequently, but just not in high numbers. A friend of mine texted me that he saw one on an off-shore island in Halifax. The very next morning I loaded up the layers, as it was about -10° outside and very windy making the windchill measurement much lower. I scan the island, wander around, scan it again, see others with their birding lenses out. Many non-birders just there to take a photo. I try to do both activities, although I am photographer first, and birder second. I run into my buddy who is setup on a chair to look upon the island and nowhere else. We don’t see much except a white blur that could be anything. Fuck it, going home. It’s cold as balls out there, but not directly going home. Gotta walk a big ass loop well past most of the photographers. I do spot a Peregrine Falcon twice, and walk the cold blowy golf course back to the car. Brrr!
That night a different friend asks about the Snowy, and says he want to go there to find it the following morning. Yeah, sure, I wasn’t planning on going again, but I will. We meet a friend so now there are three of us walking along the shore on a mission to spot a Snowy Owl. The chatting is distracting and not great for finding birds, but we still stop to take some photos of the various ones we see. I casually aim the binoculars at a white bird flying by that looks to be just another gull. I don’t know why I went to look at it, but presumably it’s flight pattern was slightly different and caught my eye. Birds all fly slightly different. Frequency of the wing flap, how straight the flight path, speed, distance from water, shore, whatnot all contribute to a unique flight pattern that each species have.
“Just another Gull of some typ…. wait, no, that’s the Snowy!” And there it was!
We saw it fly in one direction towards an area with more birding potential. We all agree we should go try to find it again. It did fly along the coast and closer to land around a corner. We walked, and walked. I stopped to scan the shore ahead every so often. Saw nothing. Walked some more, then all of a sudden it flushed from the shore ahead and now flew in the opposite direction from where it came. We got some more photos, then I tried to track it with the binoculars to see where it lands. It continued to head further out into the ocean and south. My arms tired as the owl turned to a spec in the Vertex optics, and I let it go.
A day with a lifer is a good day. Check!
