Snowy Owls in the Yard

This has been a wild winter and it isn’t over yet. We’ve had countless days of below zero temperatures and well above-average snowfall totals. The snow drifts along our driveway are deep enough to get lost in.

This cold weather, while limiting my birding, brought a wonderful surprise to our yard: Snowy Owls!

Yes, Snowy, and yes owls plural.

After hearing repeated reports of Snowy Owl sightings not too far from where we live, I was delighted to see one land in the “mailbox snow pile”. He blended in so well it would have been impossible to have seen him if I wasn’t already looking.

I took numerous shots from inside and then ventured out into the 35 mph winds to get a few more. He had moved to a perch on the power line pole.

Then, less than a week later, we were visited by a second Snowy Owl, a darker one that I assume is an immature female.

Unfortunately, she flew when a box truck rumbled down our usually quite road.

Here is a comparison shot of the two Snowy Owls.

We have but a few new trees and are waiting until spring to plant a yard (and more) so our yard list is pretty sparse.

But with yard birds like Snowy Owls, I’m not complaining.

Please note: Flickr, where we keep a lot of our photos, has changed a bunch so hopefully these images show up all right. Feel free to click on them for a larger view.