Snowy Owl

Far from home, snowy owl draws crowd in Virginia
Last Updated Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:11:24 EST
CBC News

A lone visitor from Canada is causing a stir on the grounds of Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.

The focus of all the excitement: an adult snowy owl, white from tip to toe and never before reported in these parts.
Snowy Owl (CP file photo).

The ghost-like arrival, normally a resident of the Arctic, has drawn hundreds of people to the airport, some toting high-powered cameras and digital scopes as they peer across the runways and down from atop a parking garage.

CBC Washington correspondent Michael Colton describes the late-afternoon scene:

A cold wind whips across the garage as Virginia birders wait for a once-in-a- lifetime sighting. They shiver as they wait, and then, just before sunset, the bird appears.

"I see him! Yoo-hoo!" a woman cries.

"Fly! Be free! Fly," says another.

But the owl prefers to sit still in the tall grass. –: just like a snowball, someone says – until the dark steals over it.