Lifer Snowy Owl! - 28 Jan 2006
0900 Hrs. Finally! After 20+ years of birding I finally got my lifer – SNOWY OWL! Robin and I drove down to Chum’s Corner (M-37 and US-31) to look for one of (4) Snowy Owls that were seen this week.
The day started out well with clear skies, and mild weather (45ºF). As we got to the area, the rising fog from the thawing snow was making visibility difficult. Owls had been seen near the new ball field on the west side of US-31 north of M-37, but as we drove by the fog was so thick that there was zero visibility.
Driving back, we had bright sunshine in our eyes, making the southern exposure difficult to deal with. We pulled behind Van Dries furniture store, but saw nothing in the fields behind the building.
We drove over to Chum’s Village and Case Machine shop, but still saw nothing. As we were pulling out a pair of gentlemen in a pickup stopped us and asked what we were up to. We said we were looking for Snowy’s and once they told us that they were worried about break-ins at their building, the owner told us where to look. He pointed to the peak of his building and showed us droppings from an owl that perches there much of the time. He then pointed to the fields and told us to look near the mud piles where at least two birds are found all the time. After warning us about getting too close and harassing the birds, they took off.
We drove out to the road near the subdivision and the ball diamonds we saw nothing. Then a couple (the Hartshorns) pulled up and asked if we had seen anything. Just a Horned Lark was all I could provide, but then they stopped up the road and frantically pointed to the grass in front of the baseball fields. An adult female Snowy Owl was sitting on the ground in the open. YES!!!! We drove over to their car, and got the scopes out.
I digiscoped about 50 images of it while it sat about 100 yards from us. It would turn its head almost 180º back and forth, and seemed to be resting with it eyes practically closed.
After about a half hour, they moved up the road while I took a couple of videos. Ken (I think his first name was) whistled and pointed to a second bird along side the road on a mud pile. I drove over there and was able to get images from about 30 yards out. Beautiful immature bird giving us gorgeous poses.
While I was taking a video of it, it turned and flew off to a short ways away. Not wanting to get too close, we took more pictures from the cross-road. After about an hour and a half I had shot two cards (512mB each) full of images, and Robin and I left very happy!
Grand Traverse Commons, Grand Traverse, Michigan, US
Jan 28, 2006 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments: Robin and I looking for Snowy Owls at Chum's Corner
2 species
Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) 2 2 of 4 reported.
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) 2
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
