Hi Folks,
I drove around the Glen Burnie neighborhood where the white owl was
reported and stopped and had a nice conversation with John Schmid and
his son Joshua.
The neighborhood is very thickly settled, and not where one would
expect to find any owl, thus it came as a real surprise to John. John
saw the owl at 10 p.m. last evening sitting on a very thick wire by a
utility pole in front of his house. He said the owl was very large
and very white (illuminated by a street light). John described the
bird as having eyes in the front of the face, and having turned its
head to look at him. He got about a 30-second look before the bird
flew off to the north.
I don't know what to make of this; the most likely owl here based on
my experience would be Great Horned. There is no habitat for Barred
in the area, and even less so for Barn or Snowy. Of course any owl
could find itself enroute to somewhere else.
Based on the rarity of Snowy Owl, and the unlikelihood of one being in
this habitat, I would be more inclined to think that an albino owl was
seen instead of a snowy, if indeed the owl were as white as described
to me.
Perplexing. I checked out a couple of school yards in the immediate
area, being the only open areas I could find, but saw nothing
unexpected. I asked John to call me in the unlikely event that the
owl is seen again.
I have lived in the Glen Burnie area for 15 years, and have had one
owl in the yard--a Great Horned that flew over the house at 8 p.m. one
December evening several years ago. I've also found Great Horned in
other residential areas. I have occasionally found Barred Owl in
either of two wooded parks about 1/2 mile from my house. The closest
Screech Owl I've ever found to my house was in a wooded area three or
four miles away, but none of the rarer owls--yet.
I'm intrigued by the reports of owls and gyrfalcons, and will continue
to check out anything local.
Stan Arnold
Ferndale
On 2/25/10, fr84wrdr <> wrote:
> I am next to the airport and I have been looking out the window and there is
> no sign of him here off rt176.
>
> As for the scoping part, there is a viewing park right under a flight
> corridor on rt 176 at BWI and I often see people with tripod
> mounted cameras shooting pics of aircraft.. I have wondered why they allowed
> to set up like that. MichaelO
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Frank Marenghi <>
> To:
> Sent: Thu, February 25, 2010 2:08:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Snowy Owl report in Glen Burnie
>
>
>
> Joking aside (for the moment), I assume someone will be on the lookout for a
> large white bird in Glen Burnie this afternoon? Directly adjacent to the
> airport seems like a good place to see a Snowy, although I'm sure scoping
> BWI is not too popular these days.
>
>
>
> I would come up from Annapolis, but I figured there would be some folks
> closer to that area. It's probably just a large white Rock Pigeon anyway . .
> . .
>
>
>
>
>
> ~ Frank
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:15:45 -0500
>> From:
>> Subject: [MDOSPREY] Snowy Owl report in Glen Burnie
>> To:
>>
>> MD Osprey:
>>
>> FYI ... I just received the following report. John said it was OK to
>> forward to MD Osprey.
>>
>> Phil
>>
>> >From:
>> >Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:30:44 EST
>> >Subject: Good Morning
>> >To:
>> >
>> >My name is John Schmid and and I live in Glen Burnie,Md.
>> >410-766-5262 Last night about 10pm I was looking out mt front
>> >window ,where I have some feeders in our plum tree. On one of the
>> >overhead lines I noticed a big form on the wire. As I watched its
>> >head turned quite a bit and I could see it's huge eyes. I believe it
>> >was a white snow owl. It was white and huge. It stayed there for 30
>> >seconds and as I was yelling for my wife and son to come he started
>> >to fly away and although my was missed it my son saw him. It had a
>> >huge wing span. My son said that it looked like the owl in Harry
>> >Potter. I read that they sometimes migrate away from there normal
>> >territory. There is no doubt in my mind what I saw,so I thought I
>> >would report it.Please let me know if there is anything else I can
>> >let you know about. In my yard we get 3 types of
>> >woodpeckers,nuthatches,tit mouse,carolina wren,an occasional wood
>> >thrush,oriole, a waxwing once last year and twice a
>> >grossbeak,towhees and the normal sparrows,robins,finches,blackbirds
>> >and cowbirds. I enjoy watching them very much. Well please let me
>> >know what if anything I can do. Thank You John Schmid
>>
>> ==================================
>> Phil Davis Davidsonville, Maryland USA
>> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>> ==================================
>
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