The Snowy owl and NY Times

Sunset on a winters day on the beach

I generally like to look at life as a glass half-full but In light of recent events of the port authority “wildlife specialist” exterminating snowy owls.

I would like it to be safe too. 

But I agree with this statement from Erin Crotty 
Executive Director Audubon  NY

“A need to protect airline and passenger safety. We believe there are non-lethal control strategies that are equally effective, including trapping and releasing, and have been used successfully at other airports, including Logan Airport in Boston.”

I believe that it has been the easy way to just eliminate any critter that may get in the way but there is always an alternative to this. I am not saying that it's an easy one but at this point in time perhaps a necessary one to save the wildlife and let them live wild and free.

 Otherwise what will be left?

Here is a link to sign a petition about the owls.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-port-authority-of-new-york-and-new-jersey-stop-shooting-snowy-owls-at-new-york-metro-area-airports-2?share_id=pSTiVqbmWU&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Here's a link to learn more about the owls and airports”.

http://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/blue-hills/snowy-owl-project

Here is my story about the snowy owl:

On The Wildside   

Searching for the Snowy Owl,”

Fist printed in the Enterprise Pilot Oyster Bay, New York, August 19, 2004

 

Me and my friend a Barn Owl

                                 

Searching for the snowy owl

It must've been about 10° out, but it felt like 20 below. I was at Jones Beach on one of the coldest days of the year. What was I doing there? I was looking for bird.

Now most people would be wondering (like most of my family) that I must be crazy, or at least a little weird. What kind of bird would be worth getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning and spending the day in the freezing cold?

Well, for me it was the snowy owl. The snowy owl winters on the shores of Long Island from November to March.

This magical creature migrates from places like Alaska, Greenland and Iceland. It is the official bird of Québec (sounds impressive doesn't it). I've always dreamt of going to places like Alaska. Seeing the snowy owl would be like having a small piece of that dream.

I wish I could be like Dr. Doolittle and talk to the owl. I would ask the owl about its travels, things like did he have many stops or did he fly direct? Maybe you could tell me where I could go to see a lot of wildlife? But I have been searching for weeks and have not seen one. Needing someone to share my joy with (if I ever found the owl) I took anyone that would go.

One day I went to work on my then 16-year-old daughter, as we walked on the beach I  torture her with my bad impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger, over and over again, I would say “I am looking for ta snowiee owl –have you seen ta snowiee owl?”

 (she found my Arnold imitations amusing)and when she got bored, to keep her going I would tell her things about the snowy owl, things that I learned,  things like it was the only owl that hunts in the daytime. That it had a wingspan of about 52 inches (she wasn't sure how wide that was, so I told her she would be really impressed when she saw it).

My daughter at the beach with me

She said cool, which meant she would go on this adventure with me.

It was late in the day, half frozen and feeling defeated; we headed for the parking lot. Will we ever get to see the snowy owl? Maybe I would just have to go to Alaska after all. The sun had begun to set. The winter sunsets are so beautiful that we stopped to take a photo. Then out of nowhere, like a ghost in the sky, the snowy owl stopped to rest on a dune right in front of us…

Hues of orange and pink softly reflected on the snow white feathers of the owl. He looked at us, with large haunting bright yellow eyes, it seemed to be indifferent to our presence. Captivated we stood there shivering. My daughter's eyes wide with awe said everything. We were crazy for being out here. It was the timeless allure of nature that brought us here. As we sat waiting for the car to warm up I thought maybe the owl and I will meet again someday perhaps in Alaska.

                                            

                       Winter Retreat

                       Acrylic on Canvas 11”x14”
   http://www.joannesullam.com/Prints.html

               __________________________________________

Although I never got a photo of the owl that day it had made such an impression and I painted that which lived forever in my memory and which happen to be the painting that was featured in this NY Times article.

This is part of a personal study about migratory birds and here is the link for the New York Times article about that study.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/nyregion/capturing-long-island-s-wildlife-in-oil-and-ink.html

Capturing Long Island's Wildlife, in Oil and Ink

By BARBARA DELATINER

Published: December 15, 2002

OYSTER BAY COVE— JOANNE SULLAM has sketchpad, pencils and camera in hand. At the sound of what she called a ''rare bird alert,'' she will gather her tools and rush to any place on Long Island where an unusual species has been sighted.
Take the snowy owl, for instance. An increasingly infrequent visitor to these parts, the owl was spotted at Jones Beach State Park one day last winter and off Ms. Sullam went to the beach for a look. For weeks she got there just after dawn to sit in the dunes, binoculars at the ready, until the bird finally appeared again, at sunset one day.
''It landed on a dune in front of me,'' recalled Ms. Sullam, a 44-year-old artist who is a native Long Islander and lifelong animal lover. ''And while I couldn't get any good photos, I did see it up close, catch the color variations, the shape of its eyes.''
Ms. Sullam's adventure with the snowy owl led to a portrait in oil, part of her project, ''Wild on Long Island,'' in which she is recording local landscapes and the migratory birds that visit them. Twelve of her oil paintings and pen-and-ink sketches are being exhibited at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay Cove. As Ms. Sullam completes more bird portraits and incorporates botanical species, butterflies and animals like deer and foxes in her paintings, she hopes to expand the show and move it to other venues on the Island.
The goal is to raise awareness of the Island's endangered species by showing people the wildlife around them.
''So many species are threatened by changes in their migratory and breeding habitats that it's important to raise public awareness about what's happening,'' Ms. Sullam said in an interview at the Roosevelt sanctuary, where she is a volunteer.
Trish Pelkowski, director of research at the sanctuary, is collaborating with Ms. Sullam on the project. ''Knowing what a bird might look like and where to look for it is the first step to awareness,'' Ms. Pelkowski said.
Completing the project may take a few years, Ms. Sullam estimated, because painting wild creatures takes time.
''The early bird artists, like Audubon himself, worked from stuffed birds,'' said Ms. Pelkowski, who helps Ms. Sullam locate the species. ''Art and nature conservation have evolved so much that this would no longer be acceptable.''
Most of the time, Ms. Sullam's subjects are literally on the wing. As she did with the snowy owl, she waits for hours, days or weeks in dunes, woods, grasslands or marshes to capture the birds in their natural habitats. Sometimes she uses captive animals as models, like a disabled bald eagle and peregrine falcon that live at the sanctuary and are always ready for a close-up. Backyard bird feeders also provide a steady supply of subjects.
Ms. Pelkowski and her colleagues at the center, the oldest sanctuary of the national Audubon Society, often invite the artist when migrating birds are caught in nets and tagged before being returned to the wild.
''I get as much as 15 or 20 minutes and can really get a sense of the bird -- like the shape of its feathers, its colors, the tilt of its head -- and then put all the components, including their usual habitats, together,'' Ms. Sullam said.
Raised in Long Beach and later a resident of Oceanside, Ms. Sullam and her family moved to Brookville seven years ago because ''the wildlife is much better on the North Shore,'' she said.
She attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan; her paintings and sculptures, mostly of animals, have been shown in local galleries. Her current project unites both her interests.
''The entire U.S. warbler population has declined by 30 to 40 percent,'' Ms. Pelkowski said. ''And the number of short-eared owls is down 70 percent in the U.S. So JoAnne has to see them soon and paint them before they all disappear.''
''Wild on Long Island'' is at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center, Cove Road, Oyster Bay Cove, through Jan. 11. Information: (516) 922-3200.
Photos: Joanne Sullam, holding a peregrine falcon at the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay Cove, paints portraits of Long Island wildlife, like the snowy owl, below, and the bald eagle. Her paintings and pen-and-ink sketches are on display at the sanctuary through Jan. 11. (Maxine Hicks for The New York Times)