With wings outstretched, the white owl of the north flies low and slow looking for rodents to pounce on. The silent approach is deadly to the unsuspecting lemming or ground squirrels. The gaze of a snowy owl instantly hypnotizes us humans and was a perfect choice for Harry Potter. Unless you go to the far north or a zoo, chances are you’ll never get to see a snowy owl.
Island Life
But wait; when snowy owls have bred too many offspring in some years, they fly down the Eastern Seaboard in winter to find food. Thanks to a segment on the PBS Maryland Outdoors show many viewers in the Mid-Atlantic were alerted to the possibility of seeing a snowy owl on Assateague Island. In March, 2018, my wife and I were hiking the beaches of Assateague Island when she said “What’s that white bird.” And she pointed to a snowy owl. At first I thought she had seen a variety of seagull. But as the bird flew by I was astonished to see my first snowy owl up close.
An up close look at the majestic snowy owl.
Alaska and the Snowy Owl
I had spent many months in the high Arctic in the 1970s and 1990s during my cooking years in Alaska. On one particular job at the Wainwright Dew Line site, there was a pair of snowy owls nesting in the tundra. Each day I enjoyed watching them from a distance in a land so flat even a human form can be seen from far away.
I’ve taken many a bush plane flight in Alaska.
Hiking the Tundra
One day, when I had some spare time to try and capture the owls on film, I hiked
crouching low about half a mile in the squishy tundra. When I got within 200 yards of the nest, I crawled another 100 yards to get as close as possible to shoot a photo of the wary birds. To my intense disappointment, the owl on the nest flew away, leaving me with a picture of a white dot against a blue sky. That was the closest I ever got to these mystical flying creatures and I thought I’d never get to see a snowy owl up close in the wild.
I spent ten years exploring, working, and living in Alaska.
On our trip to Assateague Island, on March 23 and 24, 2018, we were there to see the ubiquitus spotted ponies. The ponies were easy subjects to find and photograph as we hiked the beach and dunes. Neither of us even considered seeing an owl on this trip, so we focused on finding the famous ponies. With a blue-sky day and warm temperatures in the upper 40s, we spent a couple of hours getting much-needed outdoor time. When the snowy owl flew by I didn’t have time to get a good shot and was shocked at how fast the encounter happened.
An Assateague Island pony posed next to the park sign.
The owl flew northward along the beach and then made a U-turn back towards us. It flew right over two tent campers, then soared by my wife and me just 30 feet away. With my brand-new zoom lens, I clicked away and got a few decent photos of this magnificent bird. The owl didn’t seem the least bit afraid of us and perched on the railing of one of the boardwalks.
These campers might have seen the owl as it flew over their tent.
Male or Female
This particular snowy owl appeared to be a female. The males are mostly white, while the females are adorned with a black and white body and outer wings. The female is slightly larger than the males, but you wouldn’t notice unless the two were standing beside each other. Unlike most owls that hunt at night, the snowy owls hunt primarily in the daytime. When you consider some snowy owls live in the land of the midnight sun, you could say they do hunt at night, but up there it’s not dark in June and July in most far-north locations.
This snowy owl seemed right at home on Assateague Island.
As if that weren’t enough wildlife, we also saw a mature bald eagle on the beach. I’ve seen plenty of bald eagles during my years working and living in Alaska. But it was cool to see our national bird enjoying Assateague Island.
An eagle in flight is a fun thing to see while hiking a beach.
I’ve not been back since that trip to Assateague Island in 2018, but often wonder if I’d see another snowy owl. If you want a quiet beach getaway, I recommend visiting Assateague in March or April. You’ll probably see the famous ponies and you might get lucky and find Hedwig.
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