As of January 7th the Snowy Owl was still standing guard at the channel
entrance to the Windmill
Point Resort. He is either perched elegantly atop the welcome
sign or foraging for some hapless
rodent in the rocks close by. He is visited daily, by folks from
all over hoping to increase the number
of sightings in their Bird Life Lists. Tom has spoken to people
from Richmond, Northern Virginia
and North Carolina. Jerry Uhlman, who writes "Flyways" for the
Richmond Times-Dispatch, has
visited twice bringing with him birders from Richmond. Larry
Lynch, President of the Virginia
Society of Ornithology, has visited and photographed him. If the cold
weather continues the Owl
may stay for the Winter....who knows!
BJ Norris who winters in Florida has e-mailed to say that when she first
moved to Mosquito Point
about 10 years ago, someone told her of a large white bird that had
been spotted in the area. They
told her it looked like an owl, but no one seemed to think there was
such a thing as a white
owl......WRONG. She admits that not including it in the NNAS
Bird List as a rare visitor is
probably a mistake.
Also when talking with some friends at Jimmy's Grille in Urbanna recently,
they told of a sighting of
a large white owl-like bird at Rosegill Farm near Urbanna. Could
it be the Windmill Point Owl....or
another one?!
The Owl has caused one casualty.....NNAS member, Grace Dorn, fell and
broke her arm during a
foray to spot him; alas, she didn't see him. Hopefully, he will
still be hanging around when Grace
mends and gets up her courage to try again.
Mary-Nivin and Herb Stover have reported a Painted Bunting feeding at
their station in the
Windmill Point area. Jim Wagner, NNAS Director, has identified
and photographed this colorful
little bird. Of course, it is way off course and out of season.
Birders are flocking to see him too.
How do Birders know about our unusual sightings? Ellis
Squires, NNAS VP, posts the
information on the Virginia Birders Email ListServ. For more information
about Audubon LISTSERV discussion lists, visit: http://www.audubon.org/net/list/.