A Snowy Valentine's Owl 2/14

Yesterday, Dave Leatherman told me about a Snowy Owl he had found on the Pawnee National Grasslands. After I had lunch with some friends I convinced my friend Stefan Nash to join me on a ride out to try to find it. By the time we got out there I realized I only had about 30 minutes to search for it before I had to go back to get to work on time. I decided to drive a loop around the area it had been reported from earlier in the morning while making stops every quarter mile to scan for it in the area. On our last stop quarter mile stop we could make before getting to where we started I spotted the juvenile Snowy Owl in the field about a half mile away sitting on the ground. I told Stefan, "I got it" and he replied "no you don't". I then took out my scope and got Stefan on the bird. I quickly waved to the other birder that was out there and got him on the bird also. We watched the Snowy Owl for about 15 minutes before we left and only got to work 5 minutes late. I kept two pictures of the bird, one was a picture I took with my Canon XSi with my new 50-500mm Sigma Lens. The other picture I took was with was by digiscoping through my Swarovski spotting scope with my iPhone 4. It was a very exciting afternoon for such a depressing day for single people. 

                                                        Snowy Owl

                                                         Snowy Owl