Snowy Owl

 The snowy owl is a raptor of the northern tundra. They are circumpolar, nesting in northern portions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Europe and Asia. During the winter many of the adult snowy owls will stay on their nesting territory however many young birds may head south to southern Canada, the northern US, and central portions of Europe and Asia. They are the largest owl species, by weight, in North America and one of the largest in Europe and Asia.

Young birds can be identified by their black barring. The barring is usually darker on the females then on the males. As they age the barring fades until adult males are almost pure white. Hedwig, from harry Potter fame is actually a series of male snowy owls. Females often retain some of the barring even as adults. Since some males are darker then normal and some female lighter it is best to use the size of the bib under the head to determine between the sexes. This bird has a small bib so it is most likely female. The other owl  in these photos has a bib that extends half way down its chest so it is probably a male.

Snowy owls are more diurnal then most owls.It makes sense that they would have to be active during daytime hours during the nesting season, which runs from may through September. During the summer daylight can stretch to over 20 hours per day. Birds that stay on the nesting territory during the winter would have to switch to nocturnal hunting because of lack of daylight during the winter. The primary prey of the snowy owl are lemmings. They will also eat other small mammals as well as ptarmigan and water fowl. 

Occasionally there are mass eruptions of snowy owls down into Europe, Asia, or the United States. These typically occur because of a lack of food in their tundra territories. this lack of food can be caused by a bad year for the prey species, such as a decline in the lemming population due to disease, or it can be caused by a particularly good breeding season. as a ground nesting bird snowy owls can lay up to 11 eggs in a clutch. most years a snowy pair can not support that many chicks and some do not make it. On a good year where there is plenty of prey during the breeding season more chicks survive and when it comes time for them to go out on their own in the winter many head south to find food. This past winter was a huge snowy eruption in the US. Snowies were seen all the way down in Florida. Most of the snowies that I spotted were immature birds which suggests that it was a good breeding year for snowies. Unfortunately many of the snowies that came south will never make it back.

Snowy Owl in Flight

 Snowy Owl in Flight

First Birds of the Year

 I have never been much of a bird lister. My pictures are basically my bird list, but this year I am thinking of trying something new. I am going to try and post any new bird species that I photograph each week and then at this time next year I will be able to look back and count the number of species that I have seen throughout the year.

So I started 2014 off with a bang. I did not get out on the first but I spent most of the day Friday running around Dakota County, where I live. With the cold front that hit this past weekend we have a good influx of snowy owls (top). Snowy owls are usually found around the arctic circle but in years where there is a lack of food or they have a productive breeding year owl migrate south into southern Canada and the US. The northeast US has been experiencing a snowy invasion for a while now but it started out kind of slow here and just kicked in the past week. I found 4 different owls yesterday and it is estimated that we could have 7 or more just in this area. My second bird is another arctic visitor. The long-tailed ducks breed in pretty much the same range as the snowies do. Most long-tailed ducks migrate to the east or west coast of the US during the winter. For the past few years though we have had one or two that winter at the confluence of the St Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The water there usually stays open unless it gets really cold and the long-tailed duck usually join with flocks of other diving ducks, such as common goldeneye and mergansers, and fish the icy water. I hope that my next set of birds is this good but it is going to be hard to beat this pair.  

Snowy Owl

The snowy owl is a large species of owls found in the tundra of Alaska, Canada, Europe and Asia. They are the largest owl species, by weight, in North America and slightly smaller then the Eurasian eagle owls that are found through out much of Europe and Asia.

Snowy owls are white with varying amounts of black mixed in. Males are typically mostly white while females and young birds have more of a black and white mottling. The bird in the top photo appears to be a young bird while the one in the photo above is probably a mature male.

Snowy owls have thick feathers that completely their body including their feet and toes. This provides insulation that allows them to survive on their territory in the tundra year round. Unlike most species of owls snowies are primarily diurnal, active during the daytime. They eat rodents, primarily lemmings, and some birds, such as ptarmigan.

Occasionally during the winter there is a shortage of prey. This can be due to a crash in the prey base or a very successful year of raising young which increases the population. When this happens snowies may migrate south in search of food. Typically these are young birds who do not yet have an established teritory. Here in Minnesota we see snowy invasions every three to five years. When they come south the most common place that we see them is at the airport. The airport is similar to their natural habitat on the tundra. It is large and flat and usually has a good amount of rodents for the owls to hunt. As you can see by the above photo the planes do not seem to bother them much.

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl Visitor

 Minnesota is some what unique in its location and habitat. We have 4 separate biomes in the state. We have prairie parklands, similar to the great plains in the western third of the state. Eastern broadleaf forest, similar to much of the land east of the Mississippi, in the south east third. In the north east there is Laurentian mixed forest, which is similar the forests in southern Canada.  last there is a small area of aspen parklands in the northwest. The mixture of these habitats provides Minnesota with a variety of different species which varies depending upon the season. For instance last winter we had a lot of snowy owls that came down from their normal range in Canada and Alaska. These birds migrate south only when there is not enough food or too many birds. It is a treat to get to see these beautiful birds but unfortunately many end up getting themselves in trouble. I took these pictures with the flight crew at The Raptor Center. A week or two after the pictures where taken these owls were released back to the wild. This is one of the calendar pages on the new 2013 Raptor Calendar, most of which I shot and put together for them. If you are interested in supporting a great cause you can purchase one of these kick ass calendars here.

Snowy Owl

 Before a raptor can be released back into the wild from The Raptor Center they need to go out with our flight crew. The flight crew attaches the bird's jesses to a long rope called a creance. They then let them fly as far as they can. This helps the bird to exercise its flight muscles and stretch out its wings. It also helps the staff and crew determine whether or not the bird is ready to be released or whether it still need more time rehabilitating.   

This past winter there was a substantial invasion of snowy owls through out much of the northern half of the United States. Most snowy owls typically stay up in Canada or Alaska during the winter, except for a few younger ones that may make it down into the northern portions of the United States. In the winter of 2011-2012 they migrated south in greater numbers then usual. These invasions are usually a result of a crash in their prey species, lemmings, or because they had a very successful breeding season and there are more owls then the habitat can support during the winter. It is believed that the second reason was the case this past year. Many of the migrating snowies ended up in the clinic because of starvation or they are hit by cars. In March I had the opportunity to go out and take some photos of the snowies when they were with the flight crew and then later when they were released. The photo above is a past of the 2013 Raptor Center calendar which will be available for sale next week.  

Camera Critters: Snowy Owls the Sequel

A couple of weeks ago I featured a couple of pictures of a snowy owl that I took at the MSP airport for my submission to that weeks Camera Critters Meme.
This week I have a new picture of a different snowy owl taken at the same airport. It appears as though there are at least two owls hanging around MSP. This new owl appears to be a mature male, you can tell this by the lack of spots or barring on the owl.

The first owl that I photographed in December at the airport, pictured above, had much more barring. This would indicate that it is either a female or possibly a young male, I am guessing the later of the two.

The owls like the flat open areas that you find at larger airports, it is similar to the habitat that you find out on the tundra where they live most of the year. Airports also tend to have a good supply of rodents which is necessary to support these large owls. As you can see from the pic above they do not seem to be bothered by the incoming and outgoing planes but I have to believe that the jet fumes can not be good for them.

Snowy Owl

Over the past few weeks I had begun to hear reports on the MOU list server about a snowy owl that had been hanging out at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. This is not an uncommon sighting during the winter, many years we have a migrating snowy that over winters at MSP, but snowies are an extremely cool bird that I am more then happy to make a short trip t the airport to look for.
Last year I made over 15 trips to the airport but I always just seemed to miss the bird but I was determined to try again this year. So on Thursday the weather was finally cooperating so I headed over after work. My first drive through was a bust but I decided to check out some retail shops in the area to kill some time and then try a second pass. This time I found the bird perched on a light pole right after I came out of a tunnel that travels below one of the runways. Unfortunately there was not any where to park close by so I stopped in the road, there was no traffic at the time, and took several pics. I made a couple of passes this way until I decided it was best to leave before the bird got spooked or the airport police showed up.

This appears to be a young male snowy but it is hard to be sure, it could also possibly be a female. Male snowies are barred in their youth but get whiter as they mature. Female snowies are typically more heavily barred and they keep much of their barring through out their entire life. This is actually the second snowy at the airport this winter. according to Linda Whyte, an avid local birder and a long time volunteer in the clinic at The Raptor Center, a different snowy, a very white male, was captured a couple of weeks ago by a group working for the airport. This bird was taken to The Raptor Center where it was examined and found to be in good health. The bird was then tagged by the group and released at an undisclosed location. Unfortunately I was not able to get the talons or legs of the bird in any of my pics so it is impossible to see if it is banded or not but from the description this does not sound like the same bird. The airport does not like having the snowies around because it is potentially dangerous for both the bird and airplane passengers. Besides when the snowies are present they find a lot of birders driving around and since 911 airport security has become very tight.

This winter their seems to be a lot of snowies that have migrated down from the Arctic. According to Mike Hendrickson, who blogs at Colder by the Lake as well as organizing the Sax-Zim Bog Winter Bird Festival, there have been 45 reports of snowies in Minnesota so far this winter. If you are interested Mike has mapped all the reports, as well as all the reports of great gray owls and northern hawk owls in Minnesota on his blog. I have also seen probably even more reports of snowies coming from the Wisconsin list server. at first people suspected that it was a crash in the lemming population, lemmings are what snowies typically eat up in the Arctic. But I have heard it theorized that instead of crashing the lemming had a good year last year which made for a large number of new snowies being born and making it through the first crucial summer. With such a high population of snowies up on the summer range many have headed south as winter makes food more difficult to find. Either way more snowies in the area make for great birding but unfortunately it also leads to more owl and car collisions and starvation.

Snowy Owl at Tamarack Nature Center

The weather has been quite depressing for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday was no different. Since the forecast called for grey skies, all day, and since I had to work my second job that evening I decided not to bring my camera with me to work. I had some projects that I needed to work on so I brought my notebook instead. Of course when ever I don't have my camera with me some cool photo opportunity has to pop up.


This opportunity came in the form of an e-mail from the MOU list server that reported that a snowy owl had been spotted perched at Tamarack Nature Center. I had never been to Tamarack Nature Center before so I looked up directions and as soon as I finished work I ran home grabbed my gear and headed off to White Bear Lake. When I arrived there where already quite a few photographers there taking pictures of the bird. The light was terrible and the bird was not very cooperative but I was happy just to have a chance to get some snowy owl pics. It is a pretty good bet that this bird was a female, although it is possible that this was an immature male. Male snowy owls start out barred and lose the barring becoming more white as they age.
Female snowies remain barred through out their lifetime. Although it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between immature males and both immature or mature females the immature male can often be identified by a white bib and white on the back of their head.

Snowy owls have gained some notoriety over the past few years thanks JK Rowling and the Harry Potter movies. In the Harry Potter series Harry has a snowy owl named Hedwig. In the movies Hedwig is played by a male snowy owl even though Hedwig is a female, coincidentally my late grandmothers name was Hedwig.

Snowy owls spend their summers up on the Arctic tundra. They nest on the ground and will fiercely defend the nest. During the winter they may or may not migrate south depending on the food source which is mainly lemmings and other rodents. When they migrate snowy owls will typically migrate into Canada, northern Europe, northern Asia, and the northern US. When their food sources are scarce they may irrupt even further south, snowies have been reported as far south as Texas.

There have been predictions, earlier this year, that because of extreme draught conditions in Canada this past summer that the seed crop will be low. This may effect the rodent population, which count on seeds as a primary food source. A decline in the rodent population may force owls to migrate south and trigger an owl irruption in some of the northern states of the US. The last irruption in Minnesota was in 2004-2005 when we saw great grey owls in the thousands. Seeing a snowy this far south this early in the winter might be a fluke then again it might be a portent of what we might see this winter.

While I was shooting the snowy owl I noticed a flock of cedar waxwing in the tree above me. Since I think that waxwings look cool I decided to turn my camera on them for a few minutes while the owl was being uncooperative.I think that they were waiting for me to get out of the way because I was standing next to some small bushes on the side of the visitors center that were loaded with orange berries. Cedar waxwings are native to North America and are predominately berry eaters. So during the winter they will migrate where ever they can find a good cache of berries.