It was mid-afternoon on a cold January weekend, when I got a call from Ricky Olson. He told me about a Snowy Owl he had just seen. Rick thought it would make a good photo opportunity for me. The owl was roosting on a fence next to a deep, dry irrigation ditch. All I had to do was walk down the ditch, creep to the top and shoot. I headed out to the location to check it out.

Snowy Owls are usually fairly scarce in this part of the world. There are a few around every winter. The winter of 2001-2002 was the best I’ve ever seen. It was easy to find ten to 20 Snowy Owls almost every day. Every year since then has been more normal. It takes a lot of searching to find one. This winter we have been fortunate to have three snowy owls just a few miles east of Pierre. Getting close to the owls for good photos is another story. On that day in January, I was lucky.

Read the rest of the Doug's column in our March issue...