~ When You Least.....

...expect it.

 

All day Friday and most of Saturday (April Fools Day)

Mother Nature played a joke on New England.
She coated us with approximately 14 inches of snow.
Yup.....she did.



Sure, it was lovely to look at.
But heck.....we're yearning for Spring

and she just doesn't seem to want to hand it out to us.

But today she surprised us

and gave us the sunniest day

with temperatures reaching 57 degrees.
The snow is melting beautifully....yay!!!!!

So, a good friend of mine and I decided to take a ride to the beach

in search of the snowy owl who has been spotted there.

It wasn't our first hunt for the great snowy owl.

We've gone there many times scoping out areas

where he/she has been spotted.

But....sadly...we never saw him/her.

Until today.

 

Crossing over a bridge we noticed a handful of photographers

down in a parking lot to our left.
Julie quickly found a spot to turn the car around

and we headed over to see what was going on.
Imagine our surprise....delight.....excitement

when we asked one of the photographers what was getting

everyone's attention.
He quickly pointed out the "snowy owl".
Julie and I just looked at each other

and started shooting....

trying to be as quiet as possible as everyone was

so as not to frighten the owl. 
She was a beauty.



I didn't realize that only the males are almost all white.
The females have more flecks of blackish-brown plumage.
And I didn't know that snowy owls are ground nesters.
She just sat there....basking in the sun....

ignoring everyone and all of the commotion she was causing.

 

When she did move a bit....to preen herself....

there was a flurry of camera clicks.
She ignored it.....

 

.....and went back to sunbathing.

What a treat!
After taking our shots,
Julie and I walked back to the car....

quietly got in....

shut the doors....

looked at each other....

and screamed our fool heads off like two little girls.

Yup.....when you least expect it!