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Snowy Owls are active at night and the margins of the day. During the day they are out, but usually roosted on a dune, jetty, or post unless disturbed by other birds or people. Getting the sunrise shot is tough because you must find the owl in the dark before the light gets good in an ethical way that does not disturb their hunting. I am very conscious of the fact that there is a lot of pressure on snowy owls since they share habitat in the winter with people in heavily populated areas. During the day many people passing by unwittingly disturb them and many photographers mob their day roosting site once discovered, forming huddles to take photographs. For this shot everything came together in a peaceful way without people around yet. I saw this owl flying while the first light of day barely illuminated the sky. I set up a very far distance away, more than a football field (maybe 400 plus feet) too far for a good shot even with a 600mm. This owl was potentially still hunting and I didn’t want to mess that up even if it meant not getting the shot. I knew from visiting this owl previously that it generally flew out onto a jetty for its daytime roosting and that it would take off facing the wind, so I knew my positioning meant that it would likely fly in my direction eventually with good light in the sky behind it. That is exactly what happened right before sunrise resulting in this shot capturing some of the grassy dune habitat that it likes to hunt in the foreground to complete the story.