Plum Island snowy owl

I left Boston at 5:45 AM and was on Plum Island by 7:00 AM. A Snowy Owl had been reported off and on at Lot 1 and when I got there four other cars were already parked and two very polite birders pointed it out to me on a dune post about two hundred yards off the beach.

Snowy Owls are a difficult ethical subject. Everyone wants to photograph them. Nobody should approach them. I stayed at the boardwalk, shot through the long lens, and left when my toes started to complain. In the hour I was there the owl did not move. That was fine. The point was to see it, not to force it to do anything.

The rest of the morning along the refuge loop: Northern Pintails in the pannes, a flyover Rough-legged Hawk (good day for those), a foraging flock of Horned Larks near Hellcat that I worked for twenty minutes to get a sharp frame of, and two Snow Buntings that ran along the road edge like mice.

Salt Pannes had a single Great Cormorant on a post and a few Common Loons offshore.

I never know what Plum Island will be like. This one was quietly excellent.