Here is my most memorable birding experience... On January 1, 2014 my plan was to hike out onto Jessups Neck at the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge on Long Island in hopes of re-spotting a juvenile Bald Eagle that I had seen out there the week before. It was brutally cold at 7 degrees Fahrenheit and felt even colder with relentless north wind. As I passed through the main section of the park, I passed by a young woman and her parents who were taking part in a family tradition of visiting Morton on New Years Day. They were of course well bundled up as was I and all we could see of each other were eyes. We exchanged Happy New Year greetings and the young woman mentioned something about my photography equipment and then asked if I had seen any Snowy Owls out on Jessups Neck. I had been out there a lot in recent weeks and never saw one or even considered that there would be one out there, so I confidently proclaimed those facts and said that I was going out in hopes of seeing my juvenile Bald Eagle and getting better photos than I did on my previous trip. In the meantime, another female photographer came by and she too was heading out to Jessups neck, so all three of us headed north and out to the windswept spit of land that hopefully would be host to the eagle... It was absolutely brutal as we came out of the woods and hit the exposed beach, nearly unbearable for me even though I was dressed in gear that I had worn skiing in the Tetons. After a few minutes of hiking the first women decided she was not dressed properly and turned back. The second woman and I pressed on. After a very few minutes of hiking, amazingly, we spotted a Snowy Owl sitting right on the beach! I took a few quick shots from a considerable distance and decided to run back towards the young woman who had turned back to alert her to the presence of the owl, as I was running in her direction, she suddenly turned around and saw that I was headed towards her. When we were close enough to hear each other, she said theres a Snowy out there, isnt there? or something to that effect. I said there was in fact one right on the beach and she quickly spotted it with her binoculars. We walked together to where the other woman was now standing and taking photographs and watched this beautiful bird just sitting there, doing nothing, completely unfazed by the wind and cold.(naturally :) ) After a few minutes, both women were super cold and headed back to the relative warmth of the park. I dropped my backpack and excess gear in the snow and headed down the beach for a closer look at the Snowy. I was able to creep and crawl my way unseen to a much better vantage point and observed the Owl for about 30 minutes as it began flying back and forth along the beach looking for a meal, it was magical and for a short while I forgot about the cold. Eventually, the cold did get to me and I too retreated to the shelter of the wooded part of the refuge and eventually bumped into the young woman and her parents again, we exchanged small talk and introduced ourselves by name. I could still only see her eyes, but I knew she was beautiful and figured I may see her again sometime at the refuge. A few weeks later I was attending a Raptor lecture at another Refuge and after it was over, a beautiful young woman walked up to me and called me by name, it was the snowy owl girl..... So here is a photo of the Snowy Owl that helped me find the love of my life and soul mate, the most memorable birding experience and life experience of my life :)
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:48:00 +0000
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