Kathy and I went to Salisbury Beach State Park yesterday in Salisbury, MA - just on the North side of the Merrimack River in Newbury, Ma from the Plum Island National Wildlife Preserve. On the marsh side of the State Park, which encompasses a couple of thousand acres of tidal marsh, among the ice cakes tossed up on the bare marsh flats, I saw what I thought was a Snowy Owl. We get several here each winter but not large numbers of them. It seems like they simply take up winter residence here lately.
I walked back to the car and got my new Zeiss 10X42 binocs (nice!) and sneaked back to get a bit closer and have the sun behind me.... Sure enough, it was a big snowy - probably a female - and when she had had enough of this interloper she took wing, flying low (about 5 or 6 feet) over the marsh, with a black duck in its talons and landed about 400 yards away to continue plucking it.
.
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"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."
George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic.
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