I have seen a Snowy Owl once, and a very small Owl. I am not sure which one it was. A few years ago I was visiting friends in the country, and we sat around an outdoor firepit. Some species of Owl was quite verbal and would fly near us and land in a branch. It was too dark to determine what it was, but it would fly a little ways away and return always making this sound that actually was very scary. We eventually went inside thinking maybe it had a nest near by and we were considered intruders. Funny how sounds like that are so much more frightening in the dark.