Snowy owls in Texas

On Feb 16, 18 and 19 a Snowy owl was observed and photographed near Lake Ray Hubbard in Rowlett, Texas a suburb of Dallas. This caused a major stir among local avian photographers and birders. Local TV, newspapers and the Associated press all did stories on the bird. According to what I heard from people who should know this was only the sixth time a snowy owl had been reported in Texas since records have been kept from back in the 1800's. The owl showed up near a busy lake marina on 2/16 and spent several hours perching on a light pole before flying off at dusk. The owl returned on 2/18 again at the marina perching for several hours during intermittent rain on a different light/utility pole before flying off after dark. It returned a third time, again at the marina, on 2/19 when we had good weather and good light and perched for several hours on yet a third light pole. I spent about 7 or 8 hours photographing the owl and in all that time it stayed perched on the light poles. At one point when I was not present it flew from one light to another light both on the same pole a distance of 5 or 6 feet. So the perch ain't so hot but I was very happy just to see and photograph a snowy owl. Based on the map and article that Sandy Richards posted a link to on this forum this owl apparently traveled the greatest distance of any of the irrupting snowy owls at least as of the last time I checked the map. A few days after she left (most of the expert birders said it was a juvenile female) a second snowy owl was spotted and photographed perched on a downtown Dallas apartment building. As far as I know this owl was seen only once and was whiter than the one spotted at the marina. Here is a link to the photos and video of the downtown Dallas snowy. Hope it works. http://audubondallas.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2601

If the link doesn't work just search for Dallas Audubon website and go to the forums and select Bird chat.

I feel very fortunate to have had the privelege of photgraphing this visitor to Texas. I have heard some people say that according to some experts owls that travel this far usually don't survive the return trip but I am certainly hoping they are wrong. If anyone knows anything about the truth of this information or the survival rates of these far traveling owls I would like to hear about it.

I hope this post and photo was of interest to some NPN members.

Thanks,

Robert Bunch

You are indeed fortunate to have seen one, let alone photograph one Robert. I am up here in Ontario, Canada, and last year I did spot a Snowy in the country north of Toronto, but it was a grey day and the bird was even too far for my 500. This year I have not spotted, or heard of anyone else spotting a Snowy in our area (although we have had a very warm winter). They are gorgeous raptors and you are very lucky to have seen one up close.

Garry Revesz
Toronto, Canada

Robert - great report and nice image!
Sandy

That's wonderful to hear that you got to see one. As a fellow North Texan I'm jealous!

thank you for sharing that report - it certainly is an interesting snowy year! Good image too!