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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