Wow. My son and husband and I were among those that must have left shortly
before this happened. There certainly does not seem to be any signage
indicating it is a restricted area, though I suppose where people were
parking was presumably private property (though unsecured and unposted as
far as I noticed). We were thrilled to get such a good view of the owl.
Thanks to those who shared their scope.

Penny Hillemann

On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 6:21 PM, James Griffin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Snowy was seen perched on bldg just before UPS on Cargo Rd between 3:30
> and 4:30 this afternoon.  A small group of us were detained by local Police
> who asked for our ID's and inquired as to the reason for our presence.
>  When I told them we were looking at a bird he was dismayed and told us
> that we were in a secure area and photography was strictly forbidden. Only
> 1 of us had a camera and we were quick to point out that we were looking
> thru bins and not cameras.  He also seemed confused by the fact that non of
> us had ever met before today.  "How did we know to come to the airport?",
> he asked. In unison we replied that we read about it on line @ this site. I
> told him that had he been 15 minutes earlier he would have encountered a
> much larger group. At this point there were 2 police cars and 2 officers
> asking questions.  After running our ID's they returned them and thanked us
> for our cooperation.  All in all a not so unpleasant experience except for
> the fact that he informed us in no uncertain terms that we were trespassing
> and Cargo Rd. was private for use by employees of local companies only.  We
> were instructed that future transgressions would not be tolerated.  My
> question, which I kept to myself, is: If the road is private shouldn't it
> be posted as such?  When I left the area I stopped at the intersection with
> Longfellow and could not find any sign denoting restricted access.  The
> bird is there but it might be difficult to walk anywhere without attracted
> unwanted attention from the authorities. FYI they said they were responding
> to a report of suspicious behavior. I got my Snowy for the year so I'm
> happy but concerned about future forays.  Good birding to all !
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