Xmas with the Owls

In this extreme telephoto, the little white blob is a Snowy Owl. From a distance, they look rather like white plastic bags in the grasslands, not an uncommon sight, unfortunately. These two bipeds have walked up to within feet of the animal, which was on the edge of the runway. The bird was either incredibly tolerant — potentially, for these Arctic birds, born this year, these are the first humans it has ever seen — or in some kind of ill-health. Since they are nocturnal hunters, they mostly rest during the day. Being flushed, forced to fly, all day long is not a good thing. But this bird, and the one whose images I published the last two days, stayed put for a long time, with some people quite close to them.
Here’s the same bird from a bit closer and the opposite side. What’s the closest you should get? Hard to say. The bird will fly away when it thinks you’re too close, but you don’t want to force the issue. We stopped where another birder had set up a scope. About an hour later, from much farther away, we watched this bird flush when a dog walker got too close.

There’s a misconception that these birds are starving. A few may be, but most are in excellent shape, judging from the captured and released specimens from places like Logan airport.