On Wednesday, February 25th, the temperature was finally having above freezing days, and the snow is melting. This means the North Meadow has thawed in sections and has some large puddles.

I missed the Snowy Owls fly in tonight. I was at the Fort Clinton lookout looking for where the owl came from, but missed her. When I went up to the Compost Heap, she had already arrived and left. I found her on Backstop #4, and she intently looked at the north west corner of the North Meadow, where there are a group of trees. She flew off and was found with a Brown Rat, where she had been looking. Unlike most nights where she took her time to eat, she eat this one quickly.

Like most nights, she did a little post-eating set of hops and waddles, and then had fun with a small flag in the field that marked a construction area. After this she few around the North Meadow, perching on backstops and occasionally going to the ground.

There was a Killdeer calling loudly. The Snowy Owl flew towards it twice.

The highlight of the evening was the Snowy Owl taking a bath in a puddle and then drying off afterwards. It’s been too cold to see this behavior, so it was a special treat.