I stopped by my place of work late last night, it’s on the 10th floor and a few doors outside my office, they are building a deck.
So I was bored and I wondered over there. I opened the door and said, “They look like they’re done. This will be so nice.” Then I saw on the far deck something and said to myself, “Oh geez, they put one of those phony, cheezy, fake owls, on the edge of the deck.” So I walked over, it was very dark last night and as I reached for it, it sqwaked at me, and reared up and flapped its wings and flew off.
It was mostly white and it sure looked like an owl. It was like about a foot and a half all and it was mostly white. I have never heard of an owl in Chicago. The place I work is a few blocks from Lake Michigan. I’ve seen gulls and pigeons around my office. We supposedly have falcons, though I’ve never seen one. I’ve even seen a duck now and then. But never an owl.
Could this be an owl? Or was it just a big sea gull. I wish I had a camera.
My first thought was a Barn Owl, as they’re both pale and ubiquitous. But apparently they aren’t terribly common around Chicago specifically ( though they do occur ).
But you may in fact have been much luckier :). If you ran across a Snowy Owl as per that article you could consider yourself priviledged. They aren’t seen all that often in the lower 48.
As Tamerlane said, your description sounded like a Snowy Owl (albeit a somewhat small one), and sure enough, the Tribune reports that Lake Michigan has an unusually large migration of the critters this year.
I don’t know how closely their hunting proclivities mirror those of Great Horned Owls, but just to be on the safe side I’d avoid cross-country skiing while wearing something on your head that looks even vaguely edible.
Thank you, I think that was it, but it looked a bit less white than the picture in the Tribune. I guess with all the fat squirrels in Chicago, (plus the rats on the EL) it would have a nice food supply.
I heard a story about the Christmas bird count-- the guest talked about snowy owls being seen further south than normal. He said it was probably because of a “bumper crop of lemmings this year.”
