I’ve been hearing stories of snowy owls on Duxbury beach for years. I’ve seen photos from my fellow photographers to prove it. I’ve even tried to find them myself.

The Snowy Owls of Duxbury Beach are only seasonal visitors so you need to know where and when to look. Something I have only the vaguest notion of but let me start from the top.

The regal Snowy Owl is one of the few birds that can get even non-birders to come out for a look. This largest (by weight) North American owl shows up irregularly in winter to hunt in windswept fields or dunes, a pale shape with catlike yellow eyes. They spend summers far north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings, ptarmigan, and other prey in 24-hour daylight. In years of lemming population booms they can raise double or triple the usual number of young.

According to a Nat Geo program the birds that migrate south are usually the first year youngsters. Fully mature birds stay in the arctic all year long.

Mass Audubon is working to protect snowy owls. Norman Smith, Director of Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, has been studying them since 1981. As part of his research, he attaches bands and transmitters to snowy owls at Logan Airport, and then tracks their travels. He releases these trapped and banded owls at Duxbury Beach.  So we end up with 2 populations in the winter, the ones that come down to visit on their own and the released owls from the airport.

Why stop at an airport with all it’s noise and activity? As snowy owls migrate north and south, they look for stopping places that resemble their home, the Arctic tundra. To them, the land around Logan Airport fits the bill. It’s low and flat, with short scruffy plants and grasses, and there’s an abundance of small mammals and birds to eat.

Logan airport has the largest known concentration of snowy owls in the Northeast.

The airport owls help by scaring away other birds that might endanger aircraft. Unfortunately, they are large enough to pose a threat themselves. To protect both birds and jets, Smith safely captures and relocates snowy owls each year.

This year I have outfitted myself with uber -warm clothing and a new camera and lenses. Today I booked a day trip with the Audubon Society. Sadly it is a bird watcher’s trip so I was told there won’t be time or spaces for lots of camera gear. I should plan to “Shoot” from the van.

With that in mind I’ll leave the tripod behind this trip and hope I’ll learn the best ways of locating these beautiful birds so I can round up some friends that are photographers and make a return visit with that much more knowledge.