Makenna Martineau could barely contain her excitement while relaying her story about recently spotting a snowy owl at the North Bay waterfront while walking with her puppy.
"This is amazing and I am positive North Bay will love it too!" Martineau wrote alongside her photo submissions to BayToday.
"I was walking to the waterfront as I do every day with my puppy," Martineau shares, "and I could hear crows cawing like crazy in the area of The Boat. I walked over to find the snowy owl sitting along the rocks."
Unable to snap decent photos with her cellphone camera from a distance, Martineau took the chance she would miss out on capturing the rare bird on camera by leaving to retrieve her camera with a lens. The gamble paid off as when she returned, the female snowy owl was nearby.
"I returned an hour later in hopes it would be there and it was," she continues. "I kept my distance and just the power of sitting there watching it was incredible! A once-in-a-lifetime experience it felt like!"
Martineau watched from afar as the snowy owl moved into the marina.
"I followed it for a while and then it flew off," but Martineau managed some clear shots of the snowy owl she is happy to share with our readers (see photo gallery above).
For more on snowy owls, click here.
The pestering by the crows witnessed by Martineau is similar to that of some ravens in this 2018 column on snowy owls by bird expert Chris Blomme.
"Adult male birds can be almost all white, wrote Blomme in the column, "whereas the larger females (they carry the eggs) and immature birds can be white with a lot of dark brown to black speckling. Eyes are a dramatic yellow colour with dark pupils."
Snowy owls are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and their numbers are decreasing. Established in 1964, the list has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.
Snowy owls are nomadic, which makes it difficult to count them accurately. For example, experts previously estimated there were 100,000 snowy owls, but that number was later revised to around 14,000 pairs. They migrate to different regions depending on the season. Some live in the Arctic year-round, while others only stay during breeding and nesting season. In the winter, some snowy owls migrate to southern Canada and parts of the United States.
See also: 'Wow factor': Public website reveals best-yet picture of hundreds of bird migrations
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, if you ever come across an owl, follow these rules to ensure an enjoyable experience for both you and the bird:
- Observe without disturbing.
- Keep a respectful distance. In general, if it reacts to your presence you’re too close.
- Don’t flush it, this interferes with its roosting and foraging behaviour and deprives others of the opportunity to view the bird.
- Watch from your car if safe and possible.
- Move slowly and keep your voice down.
- View with the wind in your face. Birds prefer to take off into the wind, this way if they choose to fly, they will not want to fly toward you.
- Don’t lure or feed a wild owl to get a closer look.
- Never use a drone near an owl.
- Always respect private property and area-closed signs.
