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Re: Snowy Owl



Will, I can't honestly say what color the bill was.  Joan (my wife) is not
sure either.  What she does say and which is very true (and cute) is that it
looked like "Casper, the Friendly Ghost."  Isn't that a nice description and
if you think about it... true enough!

I wish we could claim that we couldn't see the bill because of the feathers
but the truth is, either it was covered or it didn't register on us.  Last
night the conditions were not as good, meaning the lighting.  Maybe the
picture will tell.  The young lady was about fifteen feet away when she
snapped the photo.  I suppose that's on the edge of the limits of a flash.
We'll see.

By the way, the crows were out mobbing again this morning about 7:15.  They
were in a tree making a racket below the Franklin Square Office Park just
above Booker Creek as is flows under Franklin Street and just adjacent to
the WCHL tower field.  I looked and looked but saw nothing....other than the
crows.... As an educated (not even) guess, I would guess that he is in the
woods somewhere between Foxcroft and the WCHL tower field but I really don't
know...  A little further back from Franklin Street, along Booker Creek, the
woods between the two areas narrows quite a bit but... I have never seen the
owl along the path that parallels that creek and I walk that way every
morning I am in Chapel Hill... usually before 8 AM.

Thanks for your interest, Jerry


-----Original Message-----
From: Will Cook <cwcook@duke.edu>
To: Jerry Partrick <partrick@intrex.net>
Date: Friday, February 08, 2002 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: Snowy Owl


Jerry,

What color was the bill?
Snowy Owls have black bills that are mostly hidden by feathers
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/snowyowl.html

Barred Owls have yellow bills
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/pix/barredowl.html

Will

> Dear listmembers,
>
> I saw the Owl again tonight.
>
> About eleven forty-five PM, a nice young lady who read one of my notices
> asking for sightings of a large white owl called me.  She had seen the
bird,
> again in the middle of the street in Foxcroft.  It flew to a low limb and
> she went in and called me and got her camera and I met her in the parking
> lot (with my daughter accompanying me).  She showed me the owl which was
> sitting on a low limb.  She photographed it with a flash and a normal
lens.
> The owl flew a short distance away to a tree, then flew and lit in the
> middle of the street, thence to a limb then flew again... and we lost it
at
> that point.  I imagine the total time I was in sight of the owl was about
> ten minutes.  My views of it were not as clear as they were on Sunday
night
> but even in the low light level, the reporting would be the same.  There
> were no ear tufts....  I did not see it's eyes.
>
> The location was in Foxcroft, in Melanie Court... across the street and a
> little up (toward Franklin St.) from the office in Foxcroft.
>
> Hope someone else sees it... also hope the photo is exposed enough to be
> able to positively identify it.  She used a flash and the flash itself
never
> phased the owl.
>
> Regards,  Jerry
>
>


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Thanks!

Will Cook
Durham, NC
Carolinabirds-owner@duke.edu