The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on everyone, albeit in different ways. For my husband and I, counting our blessings, the worst part has been not being able to go to our favorite hang outs or restaurants or go to movies. While this does not seem like a big deal, we really miss the social aspect of enjoying really good food or a movie while in the company of complete strangers and collectively gasping as something dreadful happens to our favorite protagonist.
That said my husband and I have tried to continue to find ways to be social and get out of the house. Recently we moved to Minnesota, where we have been treated to some of the best winter weather money can buy. We have found in the many areas of the world we have lived and visited, you really have to embrace the local opportunities in whatever form they come. Here in Minnesota that can mean Snowshoeing or Cross Country Skiing or going on a Sled Dog trip.
One way in which we have been able to get out and see new things and meet new and interesting people, is we have recently become members of the Owls About Minnesota Facebook group where we met, digitally, a very nice group of people who love everything to do with wild owls in MN. They have been nice enough to share some general areas in which we could spot and potentially photograph owls, to include the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport of all places.
Recently, we received intel on another possible location for a Snowy Owl, near Nerstrand, MN; and on a long weekend we decided to take a drive. Once we were in the general vicinity of the area described by our new Facebook friends we clover leafed our way around some farms, in our car of course, because the day was a frigid -6 degrees. After about an hour of searching we both spotted something on a telephone wire post, sure enough it was a Snowy Owl....... and of course we scared it off with our car. Well, we didn't want to get out of the car you know. We followed its flight and it landed on a berm off the side of the road. I got out of the car this time and of course just as I had crept up to the approximate best spot for a photo, a large pick up truck came up behind me and scared the owl off. We followed the owl's flight again, but unfortunately lost it in the converging colors of the hazy sky and the ocean of snow covered fields below.
We decided to try a different area, the Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, where we had no luck at all. We finally decided to circle back around to the area where we had seen the Snowy Owl initially and as luck would have it another couple had spotted the owl in a field and we decided to join them in admiring this amazing bird. The Snowy Owl sat in the field for a while before finally taking off toward an abandoned silo in another field. At this time, standing out in the field watching the owl, I had as much winter protection on as I could muster. In case you didn't know I recently moved to MN from SoCal, so I don't have much. I had to pairs of gloves on and my fingers were still numb. I prayed silently that my finger was actually pressing the shutter and I held it as long as I could as the owl took off from the field toward the silo. Surprisingly, I was able to get this shot.
During the course of this whole shoot and Snowy Owl sight seeing several more vehicles showed up and we found out, conversing at a safe physical distance, that some of these other people were part of the Owls About Minnesota Facebook group as well, one of which had given us some information on other good owl spotting locations.
I have really enjoyed being able to connect with like minded people who really appreciate nature and the world around them. I hope to meet up with some of them here in the near future and go spotting other fascinating wildlife.
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