20 minutes before sunrise, I found my first Snowy Owl of the winter! A few minutes after sunrise, the local crow population also discovered Snowy. However, the male owl defended himself well, and refused to be forced off his perch. Thus, I had a fantastic time early this morning and spent 1 & 1/2 hours with this cool bird. I hope you enjoy a few of my photos, plus the video. In total I took 416 images this morning. Hopefully this Snowy will establish a winter territory where I found it … which would mean over two months of Snowy Owl watching / enjoyment.

The short video of the crows attacking the Snowy Owl is at the bottom of the post.

Attack!

Mr. Snowy twenty minutes before sunrise

Getting the evil eye from a Snowy Owl!

White Fluffball

Hanging Out After Sunrise … Crows are Gone!

A video of the crows attacking the Snowy Owl

Two important items with respect to December birding news:

• As of yesterday the Sax-Zim Bog Visitor Center opened for another season of winter birding. I’ll be working next weekend, December 19th and 20th as a volunteer naturalist. Hope to see you in the Bog!
• Help out with this year’s Minnesota Christmas Bird Count. Openings across the state!

Finally, my Snowy Owl which I discovered on Friday, was banded sometime in the past two days. Found the same bird on the same exact roost, but now with a huge wing band and shoe polish on its head. Why? There must be better ways to band which do not disfigure the bird.

Sunday … Snowy Owl with wing band and shoe polish on head

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Friday … Snowy Owl w/o band or head polish

Found Spectre this morning! Yup, all the Snowy Owls I discovered in Superior, Wisconsin last winter had “wing bands” which indicated their “00” number, like “07”, and thus their license to kill! This snowy was unbanded; figured it had to be Spectre!

Hope this bird hangs out at the same location for a while. It is in a great spot for observing the hunt, and not so industrial! Enjoy the video and photographs.

• View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon images to view at full size)

Spectre the Snowy Owl

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Spectre’s Nemesis