Thursday, December 11, 2014

A Christmas Stitch & A Rare Bird

I started stitching Lizzie Kate's "Falalalala". Love the bright Christmasy colors.   
Avid birders in the area reported that a Snowy Owl was hanging out in the mudflats of Fern Ridge Reservoir. So Tuesday afternoon my Mom and I donned boots and brought umbrellas and set off on the 2 1/2 mile hike out to into the drained reservoir.    

The area is wonderful marshy bird habitat.

There are platforms for Osprey.

And I was pleased to see this little beauty. A Meadowlark.

There were several Bluebird houses.

And 'V' after 'V' of geese.

My eagle-eyed Mom was the one who spotted the owl sitting out in the mudflats.

It was 4:00pm before we got to the viewing area and in the waning light, even with my zoom lens in was impossible to take a good photo.

I am thankful that a generous birder agreed to share her two photos. More daylight and a powerful birding scope lens make for a clearer photo.   

See!  There he is!
Snowy Owls spend summers near the Arctic Circle. They hunt all hours of the day and may consume 1,600 lemmings in a summer.  Come winter they head south to Canada and the northern United States.  I'd never seen one so was really pleased to see this fellow even from afar.

17 comments:

  1. Love those colors also!
    And what a thrilling sighting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's so amazing you were able to spot the snowy owl!! Glad you made the effort to get out there for the sighting. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Thanks for sharing your awesome sighting. I really enjoy reading your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That Snowy Owl is beautiful! I love the colors for Falalalala!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow. Thanks for posting. What a rare sight! And he's adorable.
    Cathy
    CraftyCat

    ReplyDelete
  6. He sure looks like he was wishing you a Merry Christmas! Beautiful snow owl.
    Great colors in LK! Now I need to look up that design - lol.
    love Annette

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beth, how wonderful to get to see the Snowy Owl. A rare treat to be sure!! I love the colors for your next stitch. Can you tell me the color of the dark greens? I am having trouble finding a nice dark green for my WIP.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the colors in that Lizzie*Kate. A snowy owl sat on top of the state house in Concord for about two weeks one winter. While NH sometimes feels like it's in the Artic, we were not the normal winter range for them.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love your new start! How exciting to see a snowy owl!

    ReplyDelete
  10. OK, I have to say that is so cool. A real snowy owl. He's a beauty too. Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  11. The owl picture was pretty cool. I've only seen one once and that was in Michigan. They are very majestic animals

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow!!! A snowy owl!! What a great sighting!! Congrats!!! I also love the bright Christmas colors in the LK piece! The time just slips away every day... I am working on some Tra La La pieces for Christmas--almost done! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Those bright Christmas colors are calling my name! The Snowy Owls winter in my area too, but I've never actually seen one, although others have. How fun that you and your mom hiked to see the owl and other birds.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the new stitching start. An exciting day seeing the Snowy Owl. It looks so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ooooooooo, that is super cool!!! Awesome. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. ooooo love the owl ... we had a large owl land on my porch roof one night while I was in the bedroom ...typically no camera to hand .... nice colours for the L*K piece :)love mouse xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  17. Impressive that you got to see the snowy owl!! My husband saw one in a field on his way to work one day a couple of years ago, but did not have his camera with him...

    ReplyDelete

Thank you all. I appreciate that you've read my blog and are taking the time to comment.