November 11, 2018
Today I went out looking for a needle in a haystack. Seriously. I was told via a friend on Facebook that a snowy owl had been spotted at the Kalamazoo Airport!! I couldn’t get out the door fast enough this morning hoping to get a picture!
The Kalamazoo Airport is a small, yet international, airport. It’s full name is Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport. All of the runway area, where the snowy owl was reportedly hanging out, is surrounded by tall fences. The best pictures I could even hope to get would be taken through a cyclone fence. I thought it was still worth a try.
As I trudged through the snow along the fence line looking for a white owl against a white background, I worried about what I might look like—a lone figure with a very long lens (not unlike a gun, perhaps) aimed directly at the runway. Hmmm. Surprisingly, no one came out to ask me what the heck I was doing!
After an hour or so, I was inclined to ask myself that very same question. I was looking for a small white bird against a very white background in a very indeterminate location. It wasn’t like the bird was going to hold up a big sign saying “Here I am”! Reluctantly, I decided to cut my losses and headed out to a different location, one that held more of a promise of birds.
Today’s bird ‘count’ includes a red tailed hawk (on the way to the airport), starlings, sparrows and seagulls (at the airport), mallards and mergansers (at the Portage bike trail)—but no snowy owls!