George,
In the late 70's there was a Snowy Owl in DC that perched on the edge of the roof of the Rayburn House Office Building. I watched it fly across Independence Ave and perch on top of a tree on the grounds of the US Capitol.
Joe Hanfman
Columbia, Md
Joe Hanfman Columbia, MD
-----Original Message-----
From: "George M. Jett" <>
Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding <>
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:52:58
To: <>
Reply-To: "George M. Jett" <>
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] possible Snowy Owl near Mt. Vernon
Folks
I've never seen a Snowy Owl in a tree. I don't know that they would know
what a tree is. They are ground nesters since there are no trees in the
artic. All that I have seen were on roof tops or on the ground. Hopefully
it will prove true and fly over to the good state of Maryland.
George
www.georgejett.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Shenot
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 2:28 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] possible Snowy Owl near Mt. Vernon
Seems like would be kind of hard to mis-id a Snowy Owl even for a
non-birder; I know some strange lighting can make it hard sometimes, but I
am guessing if the observer thought it might be one that it most likely was.
This location (in VA) is directly across from Piscataway Park in PG County
(and visible from either the new boardwalk there, or from the fishing pier
at Colonial Farm Park - which is accessed from a different parking area).
This park could be a potentially good area for drawing the attention of a
Snowy if it was traveling along the river, since it has some nice big open
fields and generally does not have much disturbance. Myself and several
other birders have recently been looking there for a Northern Shrike
reported at Piscataway near the boardwalk (reported on eBird, not MDOsprey,
about ten days ago; to my knowledge the shrike has not been seen by anyone
other than the original observer).
Its about a mile across the river, and if the Snowy flew to the MD shore
there are several natural areas directly across the river from the VA
location. In addition to the 2 above-mentioned areas at Piscataway, there
is also a large open area of semi-public land (known as Hard Bargain Farm),
which is cooperatively managed between the NPS and private landowners. This
area is not open to the public but I think it may be accessed publicly if
you get permission first, and can be easily reached from the boardwalk at
Piscataway by continuing east past the end of the boardwalk. There are
large open ag fields there which can be viewed while walking along the
river. It is about a half mile walk from the parking area to these fields.
It is about time for a Snowy in MD now, they seem to be popping up widely
elsewhere now.
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD
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