Snowy Owl
We went owling, packed our binoculars and cameras and went owling, not at night, but during broad daylight, lured by pictures of snowy owls spotted along the short New Hampshire coastline that kept popping up on social media.
Driving north to south along the coast road, we peered to the right across the marshes and stopped at several beaches along the way.
There were clusters of people at each despite the cold wind and gray skies. We took pictures of the rough seas that blasted the rocks and us with a flurry of sea foam and resumed our quest.
Finally at Rye Harbor Beach we saw a man with a camera with an enormous telephoto lens and figured he had spotted an owl. We parked in the lot. Perched on top of a utility pole eyeing his admirers, a beautiful snowy owl.
The wind played in his feathers and nearly froze this amateur photographer’s fingers. We stayed until the cold drove us off.
As we were leaving a pair of lady walkers came abreast our car. I rolled down the window and said, “Aren’t they beautiful?” They looked puzzled. I pointed up to the pole they were about to walk past. They were as excited as we were and started telling us about all the snowy owls that had been seen on people’s roof tops.
We had made our own luck that day, and were glad to share it with strangers.
To read more about snowy owls and this irruption of them follow these links
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20131230-NEWS-131239972