Meet Ben Erickson, a Michigan hunter who has been hunting for almost 25 years. Erickson was out deer hunting with a friend in the Upper Peninsula when he noticed a strange and beautiful creature nearby.
Erickson was sitting in his pop-up structure watching two deer a few hundred yards away, when he noticed a white spot out in the field. Erickson was surprised when the white spot turned out to be a snowy owl, leading him to text a friend who was about 40 yards away to verify what he had seen. Erickson felt the owl land on top of his structure after messaging his friend. As a result, he pulled out his phone and took a selfie with the snowy owl.
Snowy owls spend most of the year in the Arctic Circle. Such a sighting in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is unusual because they are also migratory birds. Debbie Nowak, director/naturalist of the 1000 Islands Environmental Center, noted that sighting them by surprise is unusual because they are usually located in large fields and, because of their color, can blend in well with snow, making them difficult to notice.
Photo by: Ben Erickson