Photo by Will Harbaugh
Snowy owls' favorite habitat used to be the Arctic tundra, but this year they've come all the way down to southern Illinois.
Thank the lemmings; a plentiful supply of lemmings helped the owl population surge. Now there's a gorgeous female, about 2 feet tall with a 5-foot wing span, who preens and naps on her newly habitual perch, a telephone pole. She chooses one of several just before or after a pumpkin patch on Highway 154, east of Red Bud on the way to Sparta.
People are parking down the road and tip-toeing up at dawn or midnight, tripods under their arms, to sneak photos. They've dubbed her Hedwig, for Harry Potter's familiar; La Blanca; or Ookpik, the Inukitut word for snowy owl. (How the Inuit vocabulary made it to Southern Illinois is another narrative altogether.)
