Snowy Owl at Cape Hatteras

From here, we took US-264 to US-64 and crossed over to the Outer Banks. Heading south on NC-12 we crossed Pea Island and on to Hatteras Island. Allie had told us that the snowy owl was last spotted in the Buxton Woods area in Cape Hatteras National Seashore near the Lighthouse so that’s where we headed. Finding the owl would be a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. A single bird among the thousands of sea gulls and other birds across miles of sandy beaches and dunes would be very tough to find. Almost immediately, we saw a deer in the Cape Point Campground here, but she was not our target.

We felt a bit hopeless. How would we ever manage to find it? But soon, we saw a group of people heading back from the beach with lots of camera gear. Talking to these folks, we learned that we were in the right area.

The owl was along the beach near the dunes in between the 44 and 45 beach access ramps. We headed to the beach and started looking. We weren’t having any luck and saw someone walking their dogs towards the shore and suspected the dogs spooked the owl. We met several other people on the beach who were also looking for the owl, but none of us were having luck. Walking up and down and all around the beach for well over an hour, finally we caught a glimpse of the owl.

She was resting on the beach with her eyes closed, but not totally asleep. We got some pictures before some sea gulls started harassing her and she flew to another spot on the beach.

I think a few of these gulls may have made a recent meal for her. She is a mighty hunter, but quite outnumbered by the gulls. With the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in the background, this made for the perfect photo opportunity.

We got many pictures of her at different angles and then headed back to the car. As we were heading back, I jokingly said that I don’t think I could be more surprised if a tiger jumped out from behind the dunes. This beautiful owl was much further south than they normally migrate and being able to see her was a wonderful surprise. I later learned that this season is looking to have a significant irruption of snowy owls traveling much further south than usual. Three have been spotted in North Carolina, as well as many other places in the United States where they are not normally seen. One was even spotted in Bermuda! We had spent quite a bit of time looking for her and taking pictures and were getting rather hungry. So as we made our way back to the mainland, we stopped at Subway in Avon for a sandwich and then crossed the bridge back to the mainland. But we had one more stop to make in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge before making the drive home. Despite my numerous trips to the Smokies and elsewhere in the mountains, I have never seen a black bear in the wild. Fortunately, a bear sighting during a visit to Alligator River is almost guaranteed. And sure enough, after only a couple of minutes in the refuge and we spotted a very large bear rummaging around for food, just off Long Curve Road.

He was at last a quarter-mile away so I couldn’t get a great picture from that distance, but I finally saw my first wild bear. The sun was starting to go down, so we left the refuge and made our way back to Raleigh. Stopping for gas in Columbia, we told the lady at the gas station about our exciting day. She wasn’t too impressed with the bear – she sees bears three times a week on her street – but was really excited about the owl. Definitely not a common sight. We made the drive back to Raleigh, getting home at about 830. Having been up for almost 20 hours, I was exhausted and went to bed almost immediately.