Bird: Snowy Owl

Maria and I looked, albeit sporadically, all last winter for a snowy owl.

I had actually seen one years ago one winter afternoon on the road along the dunes to Ludington State Park. It was perched on a pole against a background of cold grey sky and Lake Michigan waves, and it was a perfect sighting, elemental, forever memorable.

We didn't see one last year so were excited when the bird blogs starting reporting snowy owls, first from a friend in Montana, and then several here in Michigan.

They were seen at the Muskegon Wastewater site during the week before Thanksgiving. Deborah, Maria and I almost "chased" them on Thanksgiving day, but decided to tend instead to delicious brined turkey (a la Richard), oyster and sausage dressing, perfect gravy, roasted root vegies, a sublime pumpkin pie and walnut pumpkin butter cheesecake.

So, on Friday, which was unexpectedly sunny, Maria and Richard headed home with a planned detour through the MWW. I decided to caravan with them in my car as far as the Wastewater site in hopes of seeing a snowy. And we did exactly that! The Wetzels were just in front of me as we crept along the north side of the east lagoon. We kept in touch via cell phones with Maria noting the several cars parked on the center dike and wondering what they were seeing. And then, a beautiful snowy owl burst from the weeds on the rocky lagoon edge right in front of their car and flew south, its long broad white wings flapping relatively slowly. Awesome!

I hung around another 30 minutes as it flew back and forth from the west side to the north side of the east lagoon. From a distance, it looked almost gull-like as it sat on the rocks, but when it flew, the huge wings were lovely and distinctive.

So this may be an irruptive year, occurring when lemmings get scarce farther north, and the owls venture more south than they usually do. Pete Dunne describes them as looking like "small, soot-flecked, partially melted snowmen with yellow eyes." We didn't get close enough to see the yellow eyes, but perhaps another time.