It's been a while since my last posting on this board so decided to introduce myself again. Greetings from Carson City, NV. I love to hike and thus birding happens!
On 5/20/06 I was hiking the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas (Kings Canyon Road). Suddenly a quite large bird dive bombed down the steep hillside right past me (30 feet) and some 200 feet away, behind a bush, siezed it's prey. It then heaved itself back into the air and then used the thermals to carry itself and prey, slowly, strainingly back up the hillside. The time was 2:30pm. As it passed me I noted a flat face like an owl and it's body was completely white (or so I think). It was a large bird. Larger than a redtail hawk. The wing tips were rounded and black. A photo is attached of the bird and it's prey.
When I came home and tried to identify the bird it came up as a snowy owl. It's range, however, was way out of whack. Yet the Audubon field guide stated that these owls will "migrate southward in great numbers" when the lemming supply up north gets too low. My father lives in Yakima, WA and there have been snowy owl spottings published in the local newspaper there.
Check out the photo and let me know what you think. The bird in the photo looks more like a hawk, but I swear it looked like an owl as it passed me. And if it is a hawk-like bird, what kind is completely white with black tips?
Thanks!
