A snowy owl from the North Pole lands near the Capitol Building in Washington
Night fell in Washington, and dozens of people equipped with binoculars or cameras remained watching and filming the appearance of a remarkable bird, a snowy owl, that landed near the US Capitol building from the North Pole.
A few days ago, the news of the presence of the bird from the land of snow and frost has spread in the American city.
As one of the ornithologists on the scene shouted, "She's here!", others lined up with their tripods scrambled in search of a better angle to watch and photograph the owl.
Melia Rose described it as "fantastic", noting that she had been watching birds for a "long time, but it was the first time" she had seen a snowy owl.
Bird watching is a popular activity in the United States, and the presence of this exceptional owl for a week in the heart of the federal capital was an event for lovers of this type of activity.
Alert when a rare bird is spotted -
"From here you can see the Capitol building... This contrast between wildlife and the city is striking, especially in Washington, where there are important landmarks."
Melia and her husband Alex hired a nanny so we could come to the site with their binoculars to see the owl.
Melia learned about the arrival of this bird through the "eBird" application, a network run by a group of bird-watching enthusiasts who inform followers of the observation of rare birds, and 200 million observations were recorded in 2021 all over the world from 290,000 observers.
This time, the photographers were not stationed in a forest or on the banks of a lake, but between the front of the Union Station train station in Washington and a busy avenue.
It turned out that the snowy owl with gray and white spotted feathers is a young female, and it was perched on top of a statue, as if it was in its polar environment, monitoring the station yard with its yellow eyes with white edges, in search of rodents that might end up in its claws.
'Arctic Visitor' -
The Swiss Ambassador to the United States, Jacques Petlow, with a passion for ornithology, was noted among the group of observers in front of Union Station.
"It was a special pleasure to see this bird in an unfamiliar setting," the diplomat, whose vision has always been a snowy owl, told AFP.
Kevin McGowan, a professor in the Cornell University Ornithology Laboratory, said that these "snow and ice birds" "like" with their huge white wings "creatures from another world".
Snowy owls nest during the summer in the arctic regions of the Arctic Circle, and most migrate south in the winter, but usually stop at the Canadian-US border.
In such a southern region, McGowan said, "it's like a polar bear arriving in a neighborhood."
Harry Potter -
Scott Wiedensall, co-author of the Snowstorm project documenting the appearance of the snowy owl in North America, confirmed that it is "a wonderful bird, especially for bird lovers in the Washington area, where its presence is very rare."
Edward Eder equipped his large camera to photograph The Visitor from the North Pole.
The 71-year-old retired noted that the number of bird watching enthusiasts increased during the Covid-19 pandemic because it is a hobby that can be adhered to social distancing during its practice...
With the help of their parents pointing at the owl, the children tried to see a bird they might have seen in the "Harry Potter" series, which accompanies the hero "the owl" Snowy Hedwig.
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