It’s no secret that Snowy Owls are almost everywhere this winter. My friends and I went on a 5 day trip for New Years and were able to see 8 different owls without going out of our way! In fact the first bird of the trip was a Snowy I spotted along the Jones Beach Ocean Parkway perched at the top of a roadside cedar when I was turning my car around to go back for gas at 11:30pm (eBird checklist)! Snowy Owls come in a variety of plumage types, ranging from pure white to very heavily marked with bold black bars. Although I have seen a nice variety elsewhere during this irruption, on our trip we only encountered moderately-marked birds. Below is a sampling of some of the owls we saw.