A snowy owl was spotted at Shirley Chisholm State Park over the holiday weekend — marking its first appearance in the Big Apple in years, according to the New York Post.
The rare sighting drove hordes of curious photographers, birders and wildlife enthusiasts, all hoping for a glimpse of the majestic bird to the Fountain Avenue side of the Brooklyn nature preserve.
The owl was first seen late Saturday afternoon, the newspaper said. Earlier this month, a snowy owl was also spotted on a floating barge in Bay Ridge. But by the time reports of the sighting surfaced, the bird had flown the coop.
Experts estimate the entire population is less than 30,000 in North America — and only a fraction of those migrate a long distance in a given year — making the owl’s cameo all the more unusual, the paper said.
