Sunday was a day off, and Mother’s Day, so with family commitments to attend to it looked like it would be a day in. Then news came through that the Snowy Owl had been relocated at Snettisham RSPB and was ‘showing well’. As quickly as we might be allowed, we ate our Sunday lunch and then headed up to the coast.
The Snowy Owl had been hunkered down in the grass before we arrived. Thankfully, it was in a fenced off area where it couldn’t be disturbed, and it was not at all phased by all the people gathered behind the fence. By the time we arrived, it had flown up onto a nearby fence post, where it continued to doze.
We watched the Snowy Owl here for some time. It was clearly still rather sleepy, and would regularly close its eyes, but also spent a lot of time looking round, presumably to see if any threats might be approaching. It showed no interest in a Brown Hare which ran almost underneath it and a couple of Red-legged Partridges walking through the grass nearby.
At one point, a group of Black-headed Gulls circled overhead and started to mob it briefly, the Snowy Owl ducking a couple of time, but remaining essentially unmoved. It stretched and preened a couple of times, showing off its enormous rounded wings, bigger than a Common Buzzard’s!
As the afternoon wore on, it gradually started to become more active and alert. Eventually, after craning its neck to look round, the Snowy Owl took off and flew a short distance, landing again on another fence post just a little further down.
Here the Snowy Owl was even closer to the fence, and it was now very much awake. Still, it stayed here for some time, clearly waiting for the right time to head out hunting or to head off on its way.
Some video of the Snowy Owl this afternoon is linked below:
Eventually, with the light starting to fade, the Snowy Owl flew again, up onto the top of the inner seawall beyond. At that point, we had to leave. Apparently it then flew again, circling up and heading off south. At the time of writing it had disappeared and not been seen again.
It is almost 27 years since I was lucky enough to see the last Snowy Owl to turn up in Norfolk, in March 1991. Before that, you had to go back to 1938 to see one! It is certainly a rare bird here, and a magnificent one too. Well worth the effort to go and see again!
