A snowy owl spotted in Chattanooga takes flight on Monday. He's the first documented snowy owl in Hamilton County. / Photo contributed by Kathleen GreesonStephen Hall was enjoying Martin Luther King Jr. Day in his Chattanooga home Monday morning, glad to have the day off.
A text from a neighbor around 10:30 a.m., however, alerted him to a big surprise and quickly turned his neighborhood into a birding destination.
Hall's neighbor noticed a snowy owl on his roof, and as you might expect around these parts, a snowy owl is as common as a MAGA hat at Joe Biden's inauguration.
"This is the first confirmed snowy owl in Hamilton County, so yeah, this is a huge deal for us," Kevin Calhoon said Wednesday. "There have been only four or five confirmed in the state of Tennessee."
Calhoon would know. In addition to being the curator of forests - "That's all things out of the water for the most part," he clarified - at the Tennessee Aquarium and the statistician for the Chattanooga chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Calhoon also is an official reviewer on eBird.org.
The snowy owl spends most of the year around the Arctic and has been known to come near the Great Lakes and throughout New England during the winter months, Calhoon said. The winter migration almost never leads this far south, he said. The owl's presence here could be for any number of reasons, such as a population boom this season or a shortage of lemmings, the owl's preferred prey.
And across the internet, word of Hall's feathered friend spread fast, flying across social media like crazy.
"We had more than 150 people on Monday," Hall said of the camera-toting, binocular-focusing flock of flock followers.
Hall and his family made the most of the attention, handing out coffee to some bird-watchers and more than two dozen chocolate cookies to others.
"We kind of naturally have been calling him Snowy, but my son wants to name him Jacob," Hall said of his 6-year-old, Ethan.
By any name, the rare owl has served as a much-needed distraction from politics and the devastating pandemic.
"It's been a rough year," Hall said. "Monday was a day that we were outside with other people from the community - masks on, of course - but there were people of all races and religions talking together and appreciating the beauty of this bird."
The snowy owl is a striking creature, even to those of us more familiar with Larry Bird or Big Bird than any other.
Among the crowd - Hall said there were a couple dozen on Tuesday, too - have been out-of-towners and locals. Snowy has inspired family members with kids battling cancer, the everyday heroes trying to educate our kids online, and even the noble volunteers to great causes such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
In a word, it's been awesome.
And awe-inspiring.
Calhoon said there were people from all over the U.S. headed this way to catch a glimpse of Snowy, and even the rare Bullock's oriole that has found a feeding spot on Missionary Ridge.
"I hope everyone enjoys this," Calhoon said. "The people in the neighborhoods have been very nice, and I know the birders appreciate that. Chattanooga has been very accepting for the birders from all over who have come to see these rare birds."
Sure, it's a bird, but it's more than that, too.
The experience has been a heartwarming reminder about the kindness of strangers and how Mother Nature can provide a way for us all to connect.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
Jay Greeson