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by jnadler on Wed Nov 05, 2008 3:54 pm
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Seeing and photographing are two different things! Where I live, a large and active birding group leans toward verbally abusing photographers that move toward any owls, leave alone those using mice. They would probably call the police. To be blunt, the goals of most of our local birders are to see a tiny dot in a spotting scope so they can check a species off on a list. I am serious - any snowy owl appearance in my area that would bring throngs of birders would not welcome photographers with mice. Thus, if a more friendly environment exists to take photos of this gorgeous bird, it is worth the drive.

I did not post this here for a debate, which would have belonged in another forum. Just to emphasize that for us photographers, traveling a bit to photo birds in a more receptive location is worth the travel versus verbal abuse in a nearby location. Our one and only snowy owl last year was approached by a photographer without mice, but apparently closer than many birders liked, and I recall his photo being taken and put on the local forums. One could certainly stand their ground and argue but it is far more enjoyable to be in a friendly environment.
 

by OntPhoto on Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:42 pm
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jnadler wrote:Seeing and photographing are two different things! Where I live, a large and active birding group leans toward verbally abusing photographers that move toward any owls, leave alone those using mice. They would probably call the police. To be blunt, the goals of most of our local birders are to see a tiny dot in a spotting scope so they can check a species off on a list. I am serious - any snowy owl appearance in my area that would bring throngs of birders would not welcome photographers with mice. Thus, if a more friendly environment exists to take photos of this gorgeous bird, it is worth the drive.

I did not post this here for a debate, which would have belonged in another forum. Just to emphasize that for us photographers, traveling a bit to photo birds in a more receptive location is worth the travel versus verbal abuse in a nearby location. Our one and only snowy owl last year was approached by a photographer without mice, but apparently closer than many birders liked, and I recall his photo being taken and put on the local forums. One could certainly stand their ground and argue but it is far more enjoyable to be in a friendly environment.
Interesting info Jeff. I did not realize what it was like down where you live. Up here you have the odd person who happens to be into birding and gets vocal. Most are nice and respectful. I don't see people as birders or not birders or photographers or not photographers. People who are abusive will be abusive irregardless of what their hobby is. People who are nice will be nice no matter what they're doing.

Every birder in town knows this Snowy Owl location. Winter after winter you will read reports about this area and its Snowy Owls. Practically every bird photographer I have run into knows this location too. It is a well known place. That's the only reason I'm even talking about it in the first place. But its location is kind of rural and requires a 40 minute drive east from Ottawa. There's not much to see there. The only people who would want to spend long hours at that place in winter are Snowy Owl photographers. It's open farm land and can get quite cold at times. Snow can get deep during some winters, last year for example, so may require some effort to move around. Its "remoteness" is an advantage in that it keeps many people away.

The Snowy Owls rest in the fields (and the telephone poles) which are wide and deep. Photographers would often walk deep into these fields so they're well away from the road. This offers some "privacy" from those who drive by. This makes it an ideal location to photograph Snowy Owls in peace most of the time. It also helps that a small town, Casselman, is only a 10 minute drive (if that...maybe just 5 minutes) away. This is where photographers go to take a break, warm up and get something to eat or something hot to drink. Coffee shops, shopping, gas stations, accommodations and a bar and grill restuarant.
 

by jnadler on Thu Nov 06, 2008 7:59 am
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Glad I own snowshoes!

FYI, there is a $3.00 most imprtant photographer tool for such harsh conditions, that's makes staying in teh field possible for hours instead of minutes.

Those foot and hand chem packs work wonders!
 

by pleverington on Thu Nov 06, 2008 8:17 am
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Does anyone know where in Ohio the snowy's were reported? I have found nothing about it on my usual bird reports.

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by Terence P. Brashear on Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:12 pm
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Pictures and text about Ohio Snowy Owl are here - spotted Nov 1, 2008

http://www.rarebird.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3539
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by OntPhoto on Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:54 am
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The Montreal area is reporting a couple of Snowy Owls. "Saint-Hubert airport, in the area around École nationale d'Aérotechnique: Snowy owl - at nearly 1 km from the road". On the southshore of Montreal: "Boucherville: Snowy owl boulevard Montarville on the west side of the blvd. between hwy 30 & chemin de la Savanne."

And in the Hamilton, Ontario bird count area. "A SNOWY OWL was seen at the end of McNeilley Rd. This owl was probably the same one refound today on a light standard near Fruitland Road. The bird was perched here in the fog, visible from the North Service Road just west of the Fruitland Road exit. "

The above sightings have been from this week (Nov. 2 to 6).

Took a quick spin to the well known Snowy Owl area east of Ottawa last weekend and didn't see anything after a quick check. Most winters that place is where the first Snowy Owl reports come from in our region. Of course this year, a number of Snowy Owl reports have been from within the city of Ottawa itself which is unusual. But this is a year Snowy Owls are on the move southward due to a shortage of lemmings across the eastern Artic.
 

by srfnson on Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:47 pm
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Where I live I can go out on a winter's day and find at least 5-10 owls 20min from my home. I've very rarely encountered anyone else on my excursions...but then most people don't want to be out in -25c or colder in the middle of open prairie :)

Personally, I have no problem putting my camera away and simply watching the owls when there's other people observing the owl. The last thing I would want to do is spoil someone's experience by scaring the bird off simply because I wanted to get "the shot".
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by Jim Zipp on Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:22 pm
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OntPhoto wrote:Interesting info Jeff. I did not realize what it was like down where you live. Up here you have the odd person who happens to be into birding and gets vocal. Most are nice and respectful. I don't see people as birders or not birders or photographers or not photographers. People who are abusive will be abusive irregardless of what their hobby is. People who are nice will be nice no matter what they're doing.
All I can say is if the interest in these owls increases... which I fully expect it will, I wonder how long it will be before it becomes similar to the situation in MN during the Great Gray invasion a few years back where the locals began to get extremely angry with the number of people parking along their narrow roads and tramping through their fields. I also remember the same situation at Amherst Island quite a few years ago when birders were just not welcome on the island for a while. After Amherst became "open" again I remember one time being told by "birders" as soon as they saw me get out of my car that flash photography was not allowed there for owls. Just food for thought.
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by c.w. moynihan on Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:28 pm
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Well one thing for sure, I don't take any crap from righteous birders....call me a righteous photographer who is aware of bird behavior and wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their health and welfare.

edit: flame feather suit on...;)
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by Scott Linstead on Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:01 pm
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I love snowies but my experience shooting them has not been an especially enjoyable one. Conflict finds you one way or another and there is no measure of rationalizing that can diffuse an angry birder. Last year there was at least one guy who would drive by a few times per day and honk his horn madly in disapproval. One guy got out of his car, stomped out into the field and started shoving photographers. I am grateful to have obtained a number of images that I like and that are commercially successful, but I don't exactly look forward to shooting snowies again. At least not under the same circumstances. The endless looking over one's shoulder, watching someone approach you in the middle of a field wondering if they will turn out to be friendly or are they just looking to give you grief -- just an all-around stressful scenario. But then again I am over-sensitive and anti-confrontational. ;)
 

by c.w. moynihan on Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:33 pm
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Well I agree...what an unpleasant situation. Aren't their civil laws/penalities against this sort of confrontational behavior ???...ie invasion of privacy, harassment, ect.
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by Scott Linstead on Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:21 pm
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I imagine there must be, but there's always the burden of proof, I suppose. The privacy thing may not apply since most of the time it is the co-operative farmers that give explicit permission to let photogs on their land. The shoving incident could have ended badly, but the offender was talked down by some diplomatic photogs. I remember before I left for Texas in March with these incidents still fresh in my mind, pondering how badly that kind of behavior would be received in Texas. LOL!

I don't want to paint too negative of a picture -- it probably is not much different from the last few years of Homer before that guy got his way. Still fun, but a bit of tension in the air -- a far cry from the always enjoyable experience of shooting songbirds on a private Texas ranch!
 

by Jim Zipp on Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:47 pm
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Actually my concern is less with birders than it is with landowners and locals who don't like the disruption and inconvenience of having to stop and go around cars etc. It's not a huge deal but could get to be from my experience over the years.
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by Brandon Holden on Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:57 pm
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The recent Ontario Field Ornithologists newsletter had a cover story called "Birders, Photographers and Values" which seemed to talk about photographers a decent amount of the time... Talking about how "celebrity" birds are hassled by "paparazzi" - birders and photographers alike - along with a paragraph saying why baiting is bad.

This publication is now in the hands of the 2000+ members of OFO (which is easily one of the very largest provincial/state bird groups in North America), and will surely keep owls on the minds of everyone as people get excited for hopes of a good winter owl movement.

Happy Shooting

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by Brandon Holden on Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:49 pm
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As another aside, the first Snowy Owl in southern Hamilton (Ontario, where I live) was hit by a car at the side of a highway at some point in the last 24 hrs. The bird was taken to the Owl Foundation here and had to be put to sleep due to its injuries.

The Owl Foundation has already had other Snowy Owls brought in, mostly due to severe starvation, from around southern Ontario. Pointing out that the cause of this big, early movement is probably caused by severe stress from lack of food in their usual haunts.

All the best,

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by OntPhoto on Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:07 am
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Brandon Holden wrote:The recent Ontario Field Ornithologists newsletter had a cover story called "Birders, Photographers and Values" which seemed to talk about photographers a decent amount of the time... Talking about how "celebrity" birds are hassled by "paparazzi" - birders and photographers alike - along with a paragraph saying why baiting is bad.

This publication is now in the hands of the 2000+ members of OFO (which is easily one of the very largest provincial/state bird groups in North America), and will surely keep owls on the minds of everyone as people get excited for hopes of a good winter owl movement.

Happy Shooting

Brandon
No doubt foremost on the OFO's mind was the baiting of the Northern Hawk Owl last winter at Stoney Creek near Hamilton which caused some ill will between birders and the many photographers who went to photograph it. However, that didn't stop many from going there anyway. There was a long thread on that in the forums last winter if I recall and many photos of the Hawk Owl were shown here as well.
Brandon Holden wrote:As another aside, the first Snowy Owl in southern Hamilton (Ontario, where I live) was hit by a car at the side of a highway at some point in the last 24 hrs. The bird was taken to the Owl Foundation here and had to be put to sleep due to its injuries.

The Owl Foundation has already had other Snowy Owls brought in, mostly due to severe starvation, from around southern Ontario. Pointing out that the cause of this big, early movement is probably caused by severe stress from lack of food in their usual haunts.

All the best,

Brandon
Speaking about cars and owls, a report yesterday from a local birder to Ontbirds: "On Nov.5th, while driving down along Hwy. 401 between Morrisburg and Kingston we observed plenty of road kill- 6 Northern Saw-whet Owls and 2 Eastern Screech- Owls, 1 grey and 1 red morph. I'm not sure if this is just a coincidence or if the time change (darker earlier) along with a higher volume of traffic is responsible for this increase in mortality. To top it off, while driving home to Carp on Nov. 6th, we picked up a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl, sitting on the shoulder of County Road 32 just north of Gananoque. It survived the night and is on its way to the Wild Bird Care Center. --- Bruce DiLabio"


As for the lack of food this Fall, it was mentioned earlier in this thread where Jean Iron said in a recent Ontbirds email that there is a shortage of lemmings across the eastern Artic forcing Snowy Owls southward this Fall and Winter. And there have already been a large movement of Snowy Owls in Quebec and numbers of them in Ontario.
 

by OntPhoto on Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:31 am
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Jim Zipp wrote: All I can say is if the interest in these owls increases... which I fully expect it will, I wonder how long it will be before it becomes similar to the situation in MN during the Great Gray invasion a few years back where the locals began to get extremely angry with the number of people parking along their narrow roads and tramping through their fields. I also remember the same situation at Amherst Island quite a few years ago when birders were just not welcome on the island for a while. After Amherst became "open" again I remember one time being told by "birders" as soon as they saw me get out of my car that flash photography was not allowed there for owls. Just food for thought.
Many people made it down to photograph the Snowy Owls last winter. If anyone reading this feels strongly about such things then they should do their part by staying home and not be perceived as contributing to it. But I know many are coming to enjoy the Snowy Owls. Something for all to think about anyway. Observing good etiquette goes a long way too in maintaining good feelings with the locals. One complaint I heard last year (second hand from a fellow photog) was that people (don't know if it's birders. photographers or just people passing through) were littering. On occasion I did see a discarded coffee cup or two on the side of the road but it only takes a few to paint all with the same brush. This happened last winter and I'm sure it will happen this year too. You always have people who are thoughtless when it comes to things like this. However, I have the feeling that this winter there will be Snowy Owls in many places given their southward movement due to lack of food in their normal hunting range. In a recent report it was noted that lemmings are lacking across the eastern Artic forcing Snowy Owls southward.


Last edited by OntPhoto on Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
 

by Greg Schneider on Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:43 pm
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There was a Northern Hawk Owl reported on the Leslie Street Spit today! This should be an interesting winter for sure.
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by OntPhoto on Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:26 am
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Greg Schneider wrote:There was a Northern Hawk Owl reported on the Leslie Street Spit today! This should be an interesting winter for sure.
Cool. I just read about that.

One group of local birders found a female Snowy Owl sitting in the middle of the road near the Snowy Owl hotspot yesterday, Nov. 8th:

"Later, to our surprise, we saw a female snowy owl sitting on the ground in the middle of the 417 east bound on-ramp at Casselman. She just sat there watching the cars go by. We checked out the spot on our way home later (about an hour) and she was still there. - Sue Milks with Tony Becks's birding group"


Casselman is the exit just 10 kilometers east of the Snowy Owl hotspot where most of last winter's Snowy Owl photos were taken. I think it's time to check it out again.
 

by OntPhoto on Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:42 am
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srfnson wrote:Where I live I can go out on a winter's day and find at least 5-10 owls 20min from my home. I've very rarely encountered anyone else on my excursions...but then most people don't want to be out in -25c or colder in the middle of open prairie :)

Personally, I have no problem putting my camera away and simply watching the owls when there's other people observing the owl. The last thing I would want to do is spoil someone's experience by scaring the bird off simply because I wanted to get "the shot".
Well, that's why there aren't many people who visit the Snowy Owl hotspot east of Ottawa in the dead of winter (mid-January to end of February)...except Snowy Owl photographers and occasional birders. While it's not the Prairies, it's pretty much flat and wide open farmland and thus cold in the winter months. There are some trees way off in the distance somewhere. But all you have to do is dress for it. And last winter many people came from all over to photograph the Snowy Owls at that location irregardless.

During one of the coldest weeks last winter it was something like -25*C and colder with the windchill. But you get some milder days too. If I recall, two photographers from the warm and balmy Florida area came up here that cold week to photograph the Snowy Owls. They must have felt like they had just walked into the freezer at a meat packing plant or something :D Ahhhh, but there's nothing like the sight of Snowy Owls flying right up to you that brings a little smile (a little harder to lift those smile muscles though) to the face. And there's always a hot cup of Tim Horton's coffee waiting just 5 minutes east of there to warm up the rest of you.
 

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