New Year's Owling

Unfortunately, Carrie was working on New Year's Day this year as she had worked most of the week of Christmas, but Brendan Lake had expressed an interest in seeing the Snowy Owl, which had been hanging around El Paso. So I had asked him if Mary and he wanted to meet in El Paso and make a day of it. So after meeting up at McDonald's early on New Year's Day, we drove to where the Snowy Owl had been seen just South of El Paso. There was a car parked by the field where the owl had been sitting during the day. When I got out and talked with the man, he told me he had seen the owl fly toward the Interstate. So I drove across to the other side of I-39, and looked North. I immediately saw the male Snowy Owl in the field pretty close to the road running parallel with the Interstate.



Elated, to find this bird, we searched for two others that had been reported in the area, but to no avail. We did find a good sized flock of Lapland Longspurs somewhere in Woodford County. Eventually, we headed toward Clinton Lake together to see the Northern Saw-whet Owls, and once again there were two there. Emily Walker and her husband were also looking for the saw-whets while we were there, and I was able to show them where they were as well. It's always fun to help other birders find a bird. The first owl I had seen the day after Christmas was almost in the same exact spot.



The second owl I had seen had moved to a different tree where it could see us coming, and it seemed much more relaxed without branches blocking its view, but it was still very difficult to photograph because there were still branches obstructing our view of it.

As the previous time I had been there, there were few birds on the lake, but we did manage to see at least 23 species, including a flock of 500+ Greater White-fronted Geese flying over us, 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, and this female Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted).



The next day, on my way to work, I saw eight Tundra Swans on Highway 29 just South of Merwin Nature Preserve, but I did not have my camera with me. Then on January 3, I returned to El Paso with Carrie, and we were able to see the Snowy Owl together, while others were driving three hours to Quincy to see the rare Ivory Gull, but that is another story.

Written and published on January 28, 2015