I was driving Homeacres Road yesterday morning and suddenly found myself
mere feet from a Snow Owl in a field. A couple of images of this bird
can be found here:
http://www.deweydrive.com/gallery2/gallery2/v/Nature/album06/SnowyOwl20111210/

As I was photographing this owl, a DFW enforcement officer stopped when
seeing me on the side of the road with a "big lens". We chatted a bit,
wondering if the bird was injured. I did not think it was since I had
seen it hop and flap its wings a bit, but it did not fly. It was early,
I had thought that perhaps it had eaten as was resting and digesting.
The officer returned a few hours later and the bird was still in the
same place, and did not fly when approached. The bird was captured and
taken to Second Chance Rehab in Snohomish. Early report was that it was
emaciated, had lice, and may have a head injury. We had looked around
the area to see if there were any signs of a car strike, but did see any
indication such as missing feathers.

Lesson for me to learn is that just because a bird looks outwardly OK
does not mean it is OK, I have to be even more aware of behavioral
issues. The tough one for me is that I have seen owls sit for long
periods in the same general area. I guess the difference in this case
was that this bird never flew from one spot to the other, just hopped
along the ground.

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Bill Dewey
www.thefocusedeye.com
www.deweydrive.com