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Snowy Owl seen on Dec. 3



    Jill Froning and I decided to go look for the Snow Owl yesterday AM.  By 
the time we arrived at Fort Fisher and were just starting the drive onto the 
sand it was 2:15PM, which was OK with us since high tide was supposed to be 
at 9:40 AM or so.
    We didn't have to go far.  While Jill put me to work looking up Ranger 
phone #'s, just in case.....She nonchalantly said, "Oh there he is". 
(Remember, this is her 2nd trip to see him.)  The Owl was sitting behind the 
roped off nesting colony area, about 3/4 of the way between markers 3 and 4, 
and maybe 50-60 yards back???  
    I definitely agree with Donna Bailey's comments.  Wow.  We quietly viewed 
the bird till about 4:30 PM, for awhile with 2 of the rangers and another 
birder, then tried to ID some shorebirds further down the beach in the marsh, 
and stopped again for a second as we passed the owl, still in the same 
location, as we left at 5:30PM or so.
    We got great views of lots of owl behavior.  The owl was sitting on a 
narrowish board,  close to some grasses, sleeping, then preening, walking, 
fluffing up it's feathers, drooping it's wings to cool off maybe,  picking at 
it's very feathery "furry" feet with it's beak, we even got to see the 
bottoms of them!, and defacated once, this all happened between it's napping. 
  Flew 2 times, short distances, then as the weather began to cool off, began 
bobbing and weaving it's head as it seemed to be looking for prey.  Could see 
the whiskery area around it's beak, and it's yellow-gold eyes.   
    We thoroughly enjoyed observing this bird, definitely one of my all-time 
favorites, in the 3 years since I've started birding.

Shelley Theye  
    
 
 

Shelley Theye
North Chatham County, NC
Psbmt@aol.com