Rare Snowy Owl Hit, Killed By Vehicle In McHenry County
MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — A snowy owl showed up in fields and drew the interest of photographers and bird watchers in the McHenry County area in recent weeks has died.
The owl was hit by a vehicle in McHenry at some point Monday night or Tuesday morning, Ashley O’Herron, public information officer for the McHenry Police Department, told Shaw Local News Network.
A passerby spotted the owl on the side of Bull Valley Road near Crystal Lake Road at about 5 a.m. Tuesday and called police to report the hit-and-run.
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The first confirmed sighting of the juvenile male owl was reported last summer and was the first snowy owl reported here in several years, Jeff Aufmann, vice president of the McHenry County Audubon Society, told Shaw Local News Network.
Photographers and bird watchers have shared photos of the bird in recent weeks, a rare find in McHenry County.
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Seth Pittluck, of Chicago, photographed the bird in recent weeks. He said he first spotted him in recent weeks in a field off Curran Road and Bull Valley Road while with his wife. He didn’t have his camera with his 600mm telephoto lens with him so he did not get any photos.
“My wife said it was probably a white plastic bag,” Pittluck said, “but turns out I was right.”
Once photographers and bird watchers he was in McHenry County, he began to draw crowds, Pittluck said.
“I respected his distance. I have a great telephoto lens and my photos were taken from a distance,” he said. “Not everyone was respectful though.”
He said one person posted a video of the owl, which shows him walking toward it “until he flushed it out to see it fly,” Pittluck said.
“That is the disrespect that is what causes these poor birds stress and potential death,” he said.
When Pittluck learned the bird had been struck and killed by a vehicle “he did shed a few tears.”
“From what I gather by the information I read he was struck by a car late night or early morning on a foggy day,” he said. “The owls often will use headlights of cars to hunt by and once they zero in on prey they don’t see anything but that prey. “
He thinks that may have happened to the owl, which was not able to avoid the vehicle.
“The person that hit him should be ashamed for not reporting it,” Pittluck said.
Troy Stukowski, said he snapped the below photo of the owl on Dec. 9. He was about 270 yards from the bird while taking the picture in McHenry County.
“Such a golden opportunity to be graced with the presence of this precious, respected arctic visitor,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
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