Plate 121 – Snowy Owl

In a Boston market place in February of 1833, specimens of the Snowy owl were for sale, “one of which, a male, was alive, having only been touched in the wing.” When John James Audubon was living and working near the Falls of the Ohio near present-day Louisville, Kentucky, Snowy owls were regular visitors in the winter months. A tactic Audubon described the Snowy owl used to catch fish at the Falls was to lie on its side on a rock close to an eddy or “pot” with its head turned towards the water. The owl remained motionless until snatching “with the quickness of lightning” a fish with one of its feet. And then not too unlike an Osprey, the owl would fly a short distance and alight on a spot where the owl could pin down and tear apart the fish for its next meal. Still hungry, the owl returned to the rock, lied down near the pot, and grabbed another fish to eat! According to Cornell’s e-Bird system, Audubon remains the only person who has ever recorded seeing Snowy owls at the Falls of the Ohio.