Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) by Twan Leenders
Snowy Owls on utility poles here there and everywhere. They still have their eyes on you, too. This is one of the several individuals hanging in and around Jamestown seemingly for the duration of the winter now. Have you kept yours?
Read MoreSnowy Owl video: hearing test
You may have seen my recent blog entry with Snowy Owl photos depicting a “day” in the life of the species, and that very cooperative bird was sitting around long enough for me to take some HD video of it as well. It was initially not exactly the most riveting footage in history as it looked over its shoulder and away from the camera continuously (plenty shall remain unseen). However, when I wiped some snow off my jacket while I stood behind the camera it made for an unintentionally awesome hearing test. The owl clearly heard the soft wiping noise I made from a considerable...
Read MoreSnowy Owl photos: a day in the life
This is less of a “day” than a 15 or 20 minute period of me photographing and taking video of a Snowy Owl in the southern part of Jamestown, New York during the Christmas Bird Count for the city that took place on December 15, 2013. However, the photos do depict most of what goes on during the day at our latitude for a Snowy Owl. This bird looked to me like an immature male with a lot of barring over the body though not as dark, thick or bold as some are with a rather large white bib. Let’s let it narrate… “Oh, hello there, human. I’m not very interested...
Read MoreSnowy Owl sightings and statistics
Snowy Owls have exploded across the eastern half of the United States since I blogged about the possible invasion coming this season. There has been an unbelievable push of birds heading to the south and concentrated in the Great Lakes to Northeast and the Atlantic Coast and continuing south by the day. Two years ago we had a similar burst of Snowy Owls pour down into the U.S. but it was more uniformly spread across the upper half of the country. Many Central and Northwest areas had sizable numbers of birds while the Northeast and Atlantic Coast had fewer. Why is there such a difference in...
Read MoreSnowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) by Twan Leenders
As I wrote in our blog before the invasion started, please remember that if you find a Snowy Owl it has flown all the way here very likely because it is frantically searching for food and is starving and exhausted. Give it as much room as you can while viewing it and allow it to hunt without being disturbed. While we have no control over whether or not there will be an irruption and should not feel guilty over enjoying seeing them if there is a sizable flight south we can control how much we do (or hopefully do not) pressure them while they are among us. Recording the sighting in eBird also...
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