Chirps and Cheeps

I heard about a couple of Snowy Owls that are frequenting a farm out in the area my daughter lives in. We bundled up little Sammie, my six year old granddaughter - and Katie, Sammie, and I headed out to the farm lands to try and find one of the Arctic novelties.

We cruised the roads up and down for quite awhile and Sam lost interest by about the twenty minute mark. She began singing in the back seat as Kate and I continued to pore over the fields looking for anything that wasn't a plastic bag, lump of snow, or milk container. 

We had a nice diversion when we spotted an American Kestrel that flew from an overhead wire to hunt in a field. We watched and enjoyed its hovering while it searched and prepared to strike. Taking its prey to a tree a little further back, we had a chance to get out the scope and let Sam get a nice close view of a kestrel. I was so happy it was a male and the lighting was perfect to give them such wonderful views of one of my very favorite birds!

Back to surveying the farm fields, a cloud of defeat began descending on us. But slowly making our way back up the way we came, I happened to notice a "lump" that I stopped the car to study.  A slow smile came over my face and I sent it Katie's way; she knew right away we found our bird! High-fives all around!

We didn't even need to scope this bird. S/he was fairly close in the snowy grass and our bins were quite sufficient. Sammie perked right up and squealed with delight as we studied this life bird for the two of them.

As we were feasting our eyes on this gorgeous owl, a very kind man pulled up and stopped to talk to us. He introduced himself as the owner of the farm that the owl was visiting and he generously offered us the opportunity to come in closer and to visit any time we wanted. We had to decline because Kate needed to get back to her sick little guy but that was awfully nice!

What a cool privilege to show the rarely seen (although not tihs year) Arctic Snowy Owl with my daughter and granddaughter!