Christopher Taylor was just 11 years old when he saw his first snowy owl on a visit to British Columbia.
Twenty years later, the professional wildlife photographer from Marina Del Rey, Calif., was visiting friends in Portland as word began to spread that a snowy owl had been spotted in a grass seed field near Albany.
On Monday afternoon, Taylor — who inherited his love of wildlife from his father — joined a dozen other bird lovers at the east end of 47th Avenue as they “oohed” and “aahed” at the bird’s every move in the field it shares with a flock of sheep.
“I always travel with my camera gear,” said Taylor, who was using a 500 millimeter camera lens to record the owl’s activity. “We flew in Sunday and we’re leaving Tuesday, so we’ve been extremely fortunate to see this. I think this is the second or third snowy owl reported in Oregon so far.”
Snowy owls typically live in the Arctic, especially northern Alaska, Canada and Eurasia.
Misty Stromme of Portland viewed it through a spotting scope and said its migration pattern depends a great deal on the lemming population, its main source of food.
“About every five years, the lemming population skyrockets,” Stromme said. “In turn, because there is so much food, the snowy owl population also increases.”
When the lemming population drops back, she said, the owls migrate south to look for food.
The cycle is called an “irruption.”
The owls have been reported as far south as Texas and Georgia. There have been recent reports of several snowy owls in Washington state, and Taylor said the East Coast is seeing an inordinate number of them.
Adult snowy owls — especially males — are usually all white in color. Females and juveniles can have black scalloped bars across their body. People who gathered Monday armed with binoculars, telescopes and cameras on a small hillside believed the Albany owl is a juvenile due to its size and coloration.
Snowy owls are among the larger species of owls and grow to more than 2 feet in height with a wingspan of up to 59 inches — almost 5 feet. They eat mice, voles and other small critters. Because they hunt and cavort in the daytime, it’s easier to view snowy owls than their nocturnal cousins.
“There he goes! There he goes!,” Linda Phelan of Tigard exclaimed as the owl flew closer to the group and landed on a metal box near the railroad tracks. “Did anyone get to see its feet?”
Jesse Hampton of Portland said he enjoyed seeing the “beautiful patterning on its wings.”
Corvallis residents Judy and Peter List have spotted 402 species of birds this year in Oregon, California, Arizona, Florida and Ohio, but this was their first-ever glimpse of a snowy owl in person.
“It’s nice to see it in our own backyard,” Judy List said. “We are going to Seattle anyway and might drive over to Ocean Shores to see the adults that have been reported there. It’s beautiful.”
