Today was the first time that observers at Gravelly Point failed to see a
Snowy Owl since one was discovered on December 20. While I was there from
4:30 to 5:40, birders saw pipits, a kestrel, and a night-heron, but no
Snowy Owl. The fact that the bird was not seen does not mean that it was
not at the airport. Sometimes, the bird has not moved from a particular
perch for an hour around dusk. Nobody would see it if the perch were in an
area that is out of sight. One of the other variables that was different
today was the snow in the morning. Because the area around the airport
tends to be a little warmer than most other parts of Northern Virginia, the
airfield was mostly free of snow. There was snow on some of the gravel
piles and near the bank of the river, but the snow probably did not make
looking for the white owl significantly more difficult -- it certainly was
not as difficult as looking for the owl in the fog last Saturday. What we
don't know is if the owl might have changed its behavior because of the
snow or looked for other places to hunt. It could be that the rodents at
the airfield are not as easy to find in the cold. I'll be interested to see
if there are any sightings of the owl in the coming days.
A friend who haunts used book sales found me a copy of John Grant's 1893
book Our Common Birds and How to Know Them. One of the birds Grant wrote
about was the Snowy Owl, whose scientific name back then was Nyctea nyctea.
Nyctea comes from the Greek and means "nocturnal." There is a photograph of
a Snowy Owl along with a paragraph of text in which Grant quotes Dr. Elliot
Coues, after whom the flycatcher was named. "This remarkable owl," says Dr.
Coues, "conspicuous in size and color, abounds in the boreal regions of
both hemispheres, whence it comes southward irregularly in Winter,
sometimes raiding in large numbers. With us, it is of every Winter
occurrence in the Northern and Middle States, sometimes even pushing its
way to the Carolinas and Texas; there being no part of the United States
where it may not appear at that season. It is far from being exclusively
nocturnal, and hunts abroad in the day-time as readily as any hawk." As Dr.
Coues points out, the Snowy Owl is not exclusively nocturnal, so it is just
as well that the scientific name was changed.
The weather for tomorrow afternoon is forecast to be brutal, with
temperatures and wind speed both in the low 20s. The owl will feel as if it
is back at home in the tundra, but people trying to look for it might feel
very uncomfortable.
Best
Bill Young
Arlington, VA
