The day before Thanksgiving a phone call sends son Ben off to chase a Snowy Owl. One of the women from the Raptor Center, University of Minnesota, calls. “A snowy owl is on the ground near I-35 and street such and such. Will you see if you can get it and bring it to the center.” The bird definitely shouldn’t be in the middle of city traffic plus the fear is that he is very hungry. So off we go. I follow along for the sport. Ben goes to do a job of rescue. After we park in a lot near that corner we quickly spot two crows having a fit about something. The something is the Snowy Owl on the ground.
Ben puts on his heavy leather gloves for capturing a raptor. I follow, taking pictures. Ben sneaks up on him time and again.
With each sneak, the owl flies just a short distance away. We try to steer him away from the heavy holiday traffic. Ben manages to touch him once, but he keeps landing on the fence or signs too high up to catch him.
Finally, all we can do is pray that he doesn’t get hit by a car or truck. We don’t know what happened to him after we gave up. A couple of hours and 167 photographs later, we give up and leave.