Owl see you at the mall

Leave the snowy owl alone, they said, but they said it on local television news while revealing the exact location of the owl, so naturally dozens of people have been showing up with cameras to get up close and personal with our rare Arctic visitor. Members of the local birding group have been trying to keep the crowd from getting too close and disturbing the bird, but they can't be there 24 hours a day and some folks just refuse to listen to reason, so the owl has been getting annoyed.

But not annoyed enough to move to a less busy area. When I first saw the snowy owl a few weeks ago, it was perched on a light pole next to the interstate, near a couple of motels, a construction site, some woods, and a lot of traffic. Getting close to the owl was a physical impossibility.

About a week ago, though, the owl relocated to a creek that runs behind a bunch of fast-food restaurants in front of the Grand Central Mall in Vienna, West Virginia. Yes: the owl is hangin' at the mall, sometimes perched on a heat pump behind Applebee's and sometimes sitting at the foot of a tree just inches from the parking lot behind the Men's Wearhouse. 

Why would a snowy owl spend its days within spitting distance of the busiest street in the county at the busiest shopping season of the year? Local birding expert, writer, and artist Julie Zickefoose (whose book Baby Birds would make a great gift for all the birders on your holiday list) told the local news that the creek running behind all those restaurants is like a "rat highway," a concept more  appealing to the owl than to its human visitors.

To see the owl, all you have to do is park next to Panera and look. You don't even need to get out of the car, although it helps. The owl seems oblivious to all the traffic, but people who walk too close can startle the owl into action.

I kept my distance when I visited early this morning, and so did the ten or twelve others who showed up to take a look. I enjoyed seeing the snowy owl but the whole time I felt guilty, as if I was doing something wrong, invading the owl's space or disturbing its sleep, and I fear for the times when no one is on hand to monitor the crowd. I'm reminded of the 11-year-old foster child whom I once caught throwing rocks at a great blue heron near our house. "It's just a bird," he said. I'm sure he's not the only one who thinks that way.

The snowy owl is not just a bird: it's a really cool bird that rarely visits this part of the world, and it's just trying to survive far from its natural habitat. Part of me is delighted that so many people will have a chance to see such a majestic bird in the wild, but another part wishes the owl had chosen a less accessible place to hang out. The presence of a snowy owl feels like a gift, but probably the best gift we can give in return is to keep our distance. 

An Update: A member of the local birding group set up a spotting scope around 100 feet away and allowed more than 150 visitors to take a look from a safe distance this afternoon--but then some people came along toward dusk and walked within 10 feet of the bird to take flash photographs, which scared the owl away into the darkness.  

Later update: Finally, the owl has been captured and taken to the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia, where it is being treated for a fractured wing and other injuries. Click here for the full story. 

Yes, the owl really is that close to the parking lot.

The "rat highway," with the back of Applebee's on the right.