Snowy owl

You can tell I*m not a real birder, though there is much bird blood in my family.  My great-grandfather, Thomas Sadler Roberts, wrote the definitive Minnesota bird book in the early 1940*s (appropriately called Birds of Minnesota).  When I first heard the term: Little Brown Birds (LBBs), I was bemused until I learned that it was a classification for all those small brown birds that are so hard to distinguish, one from another.  Not so the snowy owl.  With a wing span of four to five feet, they are huge and white and unlike any other bird.  I understand they*re even eating seagulls and rats   (When in Chicago...)  

I may have to seek one out this winter, even though I am not a power-birder.  They will be bird number one on my first ever life list.

I love birds but

I do not keep a life list.

I do not go out on January 1

To see the first distinct

Little Brown Bird (LBB)

Of the year.

I am not a power bird-er.

I do not utter

Power.

and.

Bird.

In the same sentence.

I thrill to juncos.

I am awed by cardinals

Brilliant against the snow.

The first robin back in spring

Means the season has finally arrived.

Trees full of redwings

Make my heart sing.

Now I hear

The snowy owls have made their way south

From the tundra.

There are simply not enough voles

In the North

To feed them.

I am not a power bird-er.

I do not keep a life list.

Still

I would love to see a snowy owl

Soaring

Perching

Hunting voles,

However he chooses,

However she chooses.

I am not a power bird-er but

I know I will recognize him,

Recognize her

When we meet

At last.