Snowy owl is the first seen since 1945
A WHITE Christmas may be out of the question this year but birders were treated to a rare sighting of a young snowy owl – the first in Cornwall for 63 years.
The appearance of the bird on moorland outside St Ives on Sunday completes a bumper year for enthusiasts.
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Alex McKechnie captured the bird on film from a distance of about 100 yards after a chance encounter with a fellow birder led to the spot at Sperris Croft.
"We met a guy with a camcorder who said he had just filmed a snowy owl – we were a little bit sceptical but had no reason to disbelieve him," he said.
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it – just sitting there on a post, white against the green moorland."
Twitchers believe it came from St Martin's on the Isles of Scilly and followed the recently-spotted gyrfalcon to the mainland. It was found during the monthly RSPB hen harrier roost count in the early afternoon.
Posted messages to a birding website showed that Ludgvan birder Richard Minari relocated the bird at about 4pm and it sat for nearly an hour on a five-bar gate. This was said to be the third longest time record for Cornwall following a long-staying bird near Bude in April and May 1945.
3 Comments
by jon, hertfordshire
Tuesday, January 06 2009, 8:23AM
“me and a friend spotted one flying over us in hertfordshire on the 27th of dec ,been a keen twitcher i was thrilled and then to see this report makes me wonder whats going on”
by julia kamlish, nanquidno, st just
Sunday, December 28 2008, 5:36PM
“I saw the snowy owl on Monday 22 December on the coastal path near Nanjizel Bay, at around 12.30. It flew straight up in front of me and settled on a rock close enough to observe it very clearly with my binoculars. I watched it for about 1/2 hour. When I walked back towards Lands End it was still in the same place, 2 hours later. It was a stunning and memorable sight.”
by Chris Bonney, Delaware, USA
Tuesday, December 23 2008, 2:30PM
“When I lived on our farm we had a snowy owl family, I remember watching then fly over the fields in the evening. They were very white and looked really impressive in the moonlight. The farm was west of St Stephens. They were still there when we left in 1966”