VA Birders,
In rereading other postings about the SNOWY OWL at Dulles Airport,
Loudoun Co., I did not see any mention of the SHORT-EARED OWL which we also saw
there Saturday evening (Jan. 28). The owls were well worth the $5.00 parking
fee
we paid.
For anyone who might be interested, Betty Kilgore and I entered the lot
at 4:40 pm, and we were parked on the roof and out looking at the SNOWY
OWL--which was then still a distant speck, even in the best of scopes--about 5
minutes later. About 5:00 pm, a SHORT-EARED OWL was spotted flying low over
the
grassy strip between the runways behind the FedEx and UPS planes. About 5:15
pm,
someone said the Snowy Owl was flying, and I watched it fly toward us thru my
scope. As noted in other postings, it came and landed on one of the light
fixtures by the post office, where it remained for a few minutes, until it was
spooked by the emergency equipment sent out to await the arrival of a small
plane (which we suspect may have been having some problem landing--fortunately,
it appeared to land O.K., and then the equipment left). Lucky for us, the
Snowy Owl flew even closer and landed on top of the tail of the FedEx plane,
where
we watched it until 5:30 pm. Then we got in the car and drove down to the
exit gate, where we happily paid our $5.00 parking fee, leaving just 5 minutes
before our hour was up!
Many photos were taken of the Snowy Owl perched up on the FedEx plane,
and I hope that some good photos will be submitted to "NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS" as
well as to "VIRGINIA BIRDS." Also, I'd like to add my thanks to Sue Heath,
who did an outstanding job of reporting the owl, and providing directions (with
permission from Airport Operations) to the location for viewing it.
Good birding
Val Kitchens
Arlington, VA
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