Farmer's Field = Tundra?

I guess a harvested corn or bean field can seem like tundra, right?

It's flat, and when it's covered with snow and the temperatures are hovering around zero, who can blame this bird for thinking she is home?

That's a female Snowy Owl, not indigenous to Indiana, but several have been spotted in our area recently. My daughter, a birder (like me) and a photographer (unlike me) took these shots a couple of miles from the barn yesterday morning.

The theory as to why the birds are in Indiana is that there is a more abundant food source here this winter and so the birds are flying much further south than they normally would in order to survive. (They've been documented as far south as Indianapolis.) My sister and her husband live near this farm field and had spotted the bird twice, so yesterday Sarah grabbed her camera and we hopped into the truck to see if we could find one. We drove to the area Leslie said she had seen the bird, and there she was, sitting over a kill.

We stayed in the truck, not wanting to disturb the bird, and watched from a distance. (Thank goodness for Sarah's telephoto lens!)  It was pretty amazing to see such a beautiful, rare bird right here in Indiana.