Just a quick thank you to everyone who contacted me today regarding the owl, and apologies to anyone who tried reaching me after I had "gone out of contact" this morning. It turned out that the bird was much more cooperative than I ever would have guessed - nevertheless, I greatly appreciate the interest people showed. I know that a good number of people enjoyed seeing it today, myself included. I first spotted the bird minutes after I arrived at the subdivision around 6:45 this morning, just as the sky was starting to get light. I saw it silhouetted in the distance perched on a rooftop chimney/vent against the warm colors of the dawn, a simply marvelous sight.
One of my highlights today was seeing it carry out a successful hunt. Around 7 I saw it alight into a field, and then fly towards a berm near someone's backyard. In the scope I was treated to watching it dismantle some largish, dark rodent-looking thing. After that it stayed put for quite a while, 20-30 minutes perhaps, at a fairly close range, offering great views in the scope. Hooray for Snowy Owls! Eric p.s. hopefully someone will post the status of the bird as of sunset tonight. It was a great help to me that Marty and Bill did so Sunday evening. I doubt I would have made the effort to drive down there for such a short search window otherwise (I only had a couple hours, and it took 2 1/2 hours driving each way). On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 3:31 AM, Eric DeFonso <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm going in search of the El Paso Snowy Owl this morning. I have -- Eric DeFonso Fort Collins, CO
