A Real OC Celebrity: The Cypress Snowy Owl
In December 2022, a Snowy Owl appeared on a rooftop in Cypress and quickly became an Orange County celebrity.
Messages began moving through the local birding community, and before long, the quiet residential street was filled with birders, photographers, curious neighbors, and news crews. Some residents were understandably less than thrilled by the sudden crowds outside their homes. Others brought out lawn chairs, handed out cookies, and joined the gathering.
I went to see the owl once with a friend and returned a second time with Kim so she could see her, too. Standing beneath palm trees and looking up at a Snowy Owl on a Southern California rooftop felt wonderfully strange.
An Owl Far from the Arctic
Snowy Owls breed on the Arctic tundra. During winter, some travel south into Canada and the northern United States, but finding one in Southern California is exceptionally rare.
She often rested on a different house from one day to the next. Some evenings, she flew away around dusk, presumably to hunt, before appearing on another nearby rooftop the following morning.
Experts studying her plumage identified her as a first-year female, probably only five to seven months old during her stay. Some people called her Snowy, while others naturally chose Hedwig.
Watching the Cypress Snowy Owl
Most of the time, the owl sat quietly above the crowd, blinking her bright yellow eyes, turning her head, or preening her heavily marked feathers. Occasionally, she seemed to smile directly at the cameras pointed toward her.
Her enormous feathered feet were my favorite detail. Snowy Owls have thick feathers covering their legs and toes, an adaptation that protects them from the bitter cold of the Arctic. On this young owl, those feet looked almost comically fluffy against the roof tiles.
A few unusually warm days raised concerns about how she was handling the Southern California weather. Temperatures climbed into the 80s, and people watched her pant and move closer to rooftop vents. She frequently rested beside chimneys and metal roof turbines, where she may have found a little shade or moving air.
The crowds could also be overwhelming. Wildlife officials monitored the owl and encouraged everyone to remain at least 100 feet away, avoid blocking homes and driveways, and give her space to rest.
Where Did She Come From?
No one knows exactly how the Snowy Owl reached Southern California. Some experts suggested that she might have rested aboard a ship, while others believed she simply traveled unusually far during her first migration. Snowy Owls sometimes appear well outside their expected winter range, so a long flight south was entirely possible.
There was also speculation that she had escaped or been released from captivity. Her healthy plumage, behavior, and ability to feed herself made that explanation seem less likely.
The owl left behind pellets containing the remains of prey, including a pocket gopher. There was also a report of her catching a coot. Those signs suggested that she was successfully finding food in an unfamiliar landscape.
We may never know how she reached Orange County or where she went after leaving Cypress. For several weeks, though, this young Arctic owl rested above a neighborhood of palm trees and red-tiled roofs while hundreds of people gathered below.
I feel incredibly fortunate that I saw her twice, first with a friend and then with Kim. I will remember the excitement along the street, the neighbors watching from lawn chairs, and that beautiful white owl gazing down at all of us with her bright eyes and enormous fluffy feet.
