I spent a year in 1978 working at a lab in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the US.   Several pairs of snowy owls nested on the tundra within easy walking distance of the lab, and I visited them a few times for photographs.   Adults were wary and usually kept their distance but remained in sight of people near their nests, occasionally flying past.   If you got too close, adults (like the female shown below) would give distraction displays, presumably to draw attention away from the offspring.   When about half-grown, the chicks (like the one shown here) start to wander from their nests, and one can encounter them (and their anxious parents) unexpectedly.
        When I returned to Barrow in 2011, the town was bigger but the owls were still there (the images above were taken within the main part of the 'city' of Barrow), but -- probably for the better -- nests are strongly protected and one needs a special permit and a hide to photograph them. All the birds I was able to photograph were males (identifiable by their almost pure-white plumage, without the dense black barring of females and juveniles).   One of them is eyeing a Lapland longspur.

• Canon 1D4, 800 mm IS lens plus 1.4X converter (2011)
• Nikon F2, 560 mm f5.6 Leitz Telyt (adults) or 90 mm macro lens (chick), Kodachrome 64 (1978)