Having lived all of my life in Ireland until 2013 it's rather shameful that up until now I had never seen a Snowy Owl. There have been regular wintering birds on the Belmullet Peninsula Co. Mayo and on Arranmore, Co. Donegal but I never felt inclined enough to make the long drive from Cork when I lived there.
News broke of a female Snowy Owl in north Norfolk on Friday afternoon. On Saturday it was relocated along the beach between Titchwell and Thornham Point. We had guests staying with us so that kind of eliminated any chances I had of going and to be honest social media was saying that the bird was distant and the crowds huge - well that was off-putting to say the least. By the time people started posting photos of badly behaved photographers on twitter I had made my mind up not to bother.
Anyway, come Sunday morning up it popped again, this time at RSPB Snettisham and 'showing well' apparently. I caved in and decided to brave the crowds and go see the bird. And how glad am I that I did!
This is likely to be 'Bird of Year' for me and easily one of the most stunning creatures I think I have ever seen. It was sitting in a tussock of grass when I reached the site near the fence hide at the far end of the Snettisham reserve. A group of about 100ish birders were viewing it and I'm glad to say behaviour was impecible and the bird was too! After watching it for about 40 minutes we were packing up and getting ready to head back when the Owl flew up from its tussock onto a fence post and started preening. Incredible views. I got a bit of a ticking off for arriving back late to Norwich but it was worth it.
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