Snowy Owl

During the morning preflight, a huge snowy owl was standing on the airplane. At first it looked like there was a slain squirrel up there with it, but it was the owl's tail. I didn't immediately recognize it as a tail, because an owl's head swivels all the way around, and this one was turned almost backwards, so the tail was in front.

I suppose the owl wasn't really as big as it looked, all puffed up with air under the feathers, but it was big. When we approached, it spread its wings and looked even bigger, then it shuffled forward and dropped down off the airplane into ground effect, where it ponderously flapped away.

I climbed up on the wing to inspect for talon marks scratched in the paint, but there was a nothing there but a bit of dirt stuck to the ice. There wasn't a magical message written on a parchment scroll, either.