Snowy Owl snow-bathing, Short-eared Owls roosting

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

I sorely needed a field foray yesterday. However, the weather was not overly alluring. Temperatures were in the low teens when I set out, skies were gray, and a stiff wind blew from the north. Seemingly not great conditions for photography. Fortunately for me, photography is only part of the equation. I am just as happy watching and observing.

I first visited the huge dam at Alum Creek Reservoir in Delaware County, Ohio - not far from home. I was there to pay a visit to the magnificent Snowy Owl that has been there all winter, to the delight of thousands - no exaggeration - of people who have seen it.

Like people, Snowy Owls have distinct personalities and I have seen ones that won't tolerate anyone near them. Others, like this girl, seemingly could care less about people. This one has chosen by far the busiest locale in this sprawling state park to call its winter home. Scores of people walk, run, cross-country ski and bird here, every day, in close proximity to the owl. There is even a busy remote-controlled airplane airfield here! It cares not a whit. And food must be abundant. I personally am quite glad it chose this spot, as so many people have gotten to see this majestic Arctic bird firsthand, the vast majority for the first time. Including many kids. I'd bet the Alum owl might have created more than a few birders, and future biologists.

Anyway, when I arrived the owl was not evident, but I quickly saw a largish flock of Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs, and Snow Buntings swirling about the top of the dam's long grassy slope. I made the ascent, splayed my tripod out to ground level, lay behind the rig, and let the birds come to me. Soon, like gulls on the beach, the birds were close at hand and at times all around me. After a bit, I sidled over to look down the hill, and there was the Snowy Owl, part way down the hill and looking supreme in a blanket of powdery snow.

In short order, it began to snow-bathe, something I had never seen this species do. She would thrust her head under the snow, throw powder over her body with her wings, and occasionally shake and fluff. That's what she's doing in the image above.

Pleased with how things went down at Alum Creek, I decided to press northward, to a spot that can be good for Short-eared Owls.

I was not disappointed. While still a quarter mile or more from ground zero, I saw five or six owls swirling high in the air. Even though it was noon. The presence of a Bald Eagle flying away suggested that the larger raptor had put the owls up.

The Short-ears soon returned to earth, and settled in. The one above chose a stump in brush, near the road. By using the car as a blind, I could pause nearby without bothering the animals. This one, its head on a swivel, paid me no mind and I enjoyed watching its keen alertness. Even though the middle of the day, if a vole or mouse foolishly showed itself, the owl probably would have pounced.

A fierce-looking Short-eared Owl monitors its surroundings from atop an old snag. I especially loved stumbling into this bird, as he had chosen an especially aesthetic perch.

I came by the perch later, and another owl was sitting just below! That's pretty buddy-buddy for these fairly anti-social owls, and I think the one above is a male, and the other a female. Female Short-eared Owls tend to be darker and buffier, and that's how she looked to me.

The area that I saw these owls - seven in all - is smack in the midst of the Sandusky Plains prairie. This huge prairie system has nearly been eradicated by agriculture, and the few spots that survive are important refugia for prairie denizens such as Short-eared Owls. Given their numbers this winter at this place and other nearby spots, one must suspect that Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are having a boom year. Maybe other rodents as well. Voles, especially, seem to drive wintering raptor numbers in the Midwest.

Sometimes following a major vole eruption, Short-eared Owls - and Northern Harriers - will remain to nest. Maybe the pair in the photo above. They typically form pair bonds in late winter. Part of this includes incredible "sky dancing" flight displays replete with booming hoots and loud wing claps. I saw none of that yesterday, but will be watching for such behavior on future visits.

Snowy owl photography tactics - and things NOT to do

A gorgeous juvenile female snowy owl briefly catches your narrator with its piercing gaze. It's doing its Linda Blair/Exorcist trick - twisting its head 180 degrees to look straight behind. Owls have 14 neck vertebrae - double our number - which allows them such flexibility.

These visitors from the high arctic have irrupted big time into Ohio and adjacent regions, with new birds coming to light nearly every day. Probably 80 or so have thus far been reported in the state, and some of them have stuck around favored spots and become local celebrities.

I went to visit one of these birds this morning - the animal above, which was found last Friday by Doug Overacker and Julie Karlson at C.J. Brown Reservoir near Springfield. In the four days since its discovery, many people have visited as is nearly always the case when one of these white wonders appears near a large population center or is otherwise very accessible.

And as is always the case, people want to photograph the owls. And therein often lies the rub, as far as the owls are concerned. A natural inclination of photographers is to get closer, closer, closer. This may be just human nature, a lack of oomph regarding lens power, or the desire to frame-fill the bird and minimize the need to crop. However, close approaches put a sleepy owl on edge, and are apt to flush it. Just because snowy owls "hide" in plain sight during the day doesn't mean they're active. They hail from treeless tundra regions and are pre-programmed to roost in wide open spaces, typically on the ground. While a bird may opportunistically grab prey during daylight hours, like most other owls they are largely nocturnal. It's best to give resting birds a wide berth and enjoy them from a reasonable distance. Flushing one causes it to expend unnecessary energy, potentially alerts harassers such as crows to its presence, and depending upon location, may drive the bird across a road and into traffic.

If disturbances happen too frequently, the animal may leave the area. If it is spooked from a site in which prey was plentiful and forced to try and locate another spot that can meet its feeding requirements, the owl's chances of survival drop.

Fortunately, these mammoth avian predators (up to 5 lbs! nearly 5 foot wingspan! two feet long!) can easily be appreciated from distances outside of the owl's discomfort zone, but plenty close enough to admire well, and often get decent shots. It isn't hard to tell when your presence is bothering the animal. It'll fidget, stare at you for extended periods, possibly adjust its position, and if pushed too much, ultimately take flight.  A touchdown as far as snowy owl photos go is obtaining nice images, and the bird is exactly where it was when you leave.

While the bird's welfare should come first, there is the human factor to consider. Like it or not, you will probably not be the owl's only admirer. Other people will visit, and most of them will not appreciate the person who insists on making an irresponsibly close approach - and Hedwig forbid they flush the bird in front of a group of people! Many nasty people encounters have been spawned by such behavior, and no one wants that.

This is the lay of the land - the beach area at C.J. Brown Reservoir. Upon arrival near first light this morning, I saw the big white bird instantly. Its location is denoted by the red pin closer to the bottom of the map - it was sitting atop a raised berm along that section of parking lot. The other pin shows where I was when I made the first image in this post.

The gate to these parking lots is closed for the winter, so one must park in the lots along the north-south road to their right. As I walked in, I kept a few parking lots and the berms between them between me and the owl. I have no doubt that it instantly saw me when I appeared, but my distance was such that it paid me no mind. To get the over-the-back look from the owl for my photo was just a matter of patience, as it routinely scanned in all directions.

I am fortunate in that I've got Canon's superb 800mm f/5.6 lens, which greatly increases the distance that the photographer can be from the subject and still get good images. Nonetheless, this bird could be photographed well with lesser lenses, from similar distances, especially on days with better light.

Following is some wonky techno-stuff for photographers working a snowy owl from afar. Always use a tripod (sturdy one, hopefully!), as a solid base of operations is vital. If you don't already, learn to shoot in RAW mode regarding image preservation. RAW files are digital negatives that capture all the data, and are often thrice the file size of a jpeg (the latter file type compresses the image thus losing some data). The ability to crop and otherwise edit a RAW file and still retain detail is much greater.

This day was gusty, which presented stability issues. The camera/lens being firmly locked down on the tripod helped, but big telephoto lenses have huge lens hoods. Mine is about the size of a coffee can. The first thing I did was take it off, to prevent the hood acting as a parasail. The ambient light was still not very bright when I made my images, and I try my best to keep the ISO to 800 or preferably less, to help ensure clean mostly grain-free images. To do that, I opened the lens to f/5.6 - wide open - and had to drop the shutter speed to 1/160, with 0.7+ exposure compensation. Those settings gave me an ISO of 800, which was OK. To further help ensure a relatively sharp image, I shot in live view, which locks the mirror up, preventing even the slight shudder caused by the mirror's actuation. My Canon 5D IV has a touch-sensitive back screen, so I could just touch the part of the screen where I wanted the focus point to be. Finally, I set the drive mode to 2-second delay, which meant that I wasn't even touching the equipment when the camera fired. I then positioned myself as a wind block, although I tried to shoot between gusts. Resting snowy owls don't move much, making these techniques possible. If the bird did move its head during the 2-second delay, I just shot again. These tactics gave me some nice files that could be greatly cropped and tweaked later, and to the owl, it's as if I wasn't even there.

I had noticed several hundred gulls resting on the nearby beach, and foraging offshore. Being a huge gull fan, I headed their way after working with the owl. Gulls are awesome on many levels. They're beautiful, masterful aeronauts, excellent identification challenges, exhibit fascinating behavior, and some are great case studies in evolution.

This is an adult ring-billed gull, and it has captured a spotfin shiner, Cyprinellus spiloptera (I think). Naturally, once the other gulls saw this bird with its hard-earned meal, the chase was on. Shooting gulls in flight is great fun, and relatively low-hanging fruit on the photographic difficulty scale. I like to wait for some interesting performance, such as an aerial dogfight or just-caught fish to create a more interesting image.

After an hour of playing with the gulls, I ascended the low hill back to the parking lots where the owl was. Keeping the snowy in mind and figuring it was probably where I left it, I detoured north so I came into the lots as far away from the owl as possible. A quick glance showed that it was not where I left it. It was now in a tree - a few hundred feet away. With a photographer nearly under it. Having no desire to publically embarrass anyone, I've shaded out the person's body in the photo above so they can't be identified, but you can see the telephoto lens sticking out to the right. And the owl staring at the person from the tree to the right - probably about 40 feet away and that's way too close.

I imagine the person saw the owl where I had seen it, got too close and spooked it into the tree (NOT a typical resting spot). They then followed it, and from my unseen perspective from the distant corner of the parking lot I watched the next flush unfold. The person crept ever closer, and through my lens I could see the owl staring and fidgeting. It finally fluffed up and shook its wings and I knew it was about to bail again.

The flushed owl came straight my way as I stood quietly behind one of the berms, and alit not too far away. I imagine this is the type of shot the person was trying for, although I'm not particularly gratified by my effort due to the circumstances.

While a bit ticked at watching this go down, angry encounters generally do no good. I gave the owl a wide berth and worked my way to the other end of the parking lots to say hi to the photographer, who I didn't know but did recognize. Hopefully our cordial chat about owl welfare will help in future encounters.

If you do see a snowy owl - and this is the winter for it! - please keep a fair distance away and don't risk flushing the animal. Patience rules. If you wait long enough the bird will eventually do something - adopt interesting postures, preen, make a short flight to another spot, maybe catch a vole if you're really lucky. In the case of the snowy owl that was the subject of my previous two posts, I spent nearly eight hours watching it, and was rewarded with some wonderful photographic opportunities.

And if you do see inappropriate behavior on the part of one of your fellow owl-watching primates, please address it with civility. Loudly yelling across a field, angry confrontations, or other bellicose displays will probably not help; they'll likely make matters worse. A reasoned dialog might stimulate positive change. While there are exceptions, most people, including photographers, who unnecessarily disturb an owl may well not know any better. A casual chat about the birds and their amazing life history, habits and needs might be all it takes to help improve a situation.

Nature: Snowy owls once again making their way into Ohio

A snowy owls rests atop a Holmes County feed silo/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

December 17th, 2017

NATURE

Jim McCormac

Four years and two days ago, I wrote a column on snowy owls. That winter saw a massive invasion of these stunning, white arctic predators. At least 170 owls were reported from 59 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Deja vu. In perfect harmony with an oft-cited four-year cycle, the owls are irrupting again. I’ve heard of about 50 owls so far, in perhaps 25 counties. One of these was a brief sighting of a bird near the Main Post Office on Twin Rivers Drive in Columbus.

This winter’s irruption isn’t confined to Ohio. Scores of owls have been reported in a band from Montana and the Dakotas east to the Atlantic coast and in adjacent parts of Canada.

The majority of Ohio reports come from Lake Erie, as is typical. Harbors and the lakeshore provide an abundance of food in the form of gulls, ducks and small rodents. Even in lean owl years, a smattering of birds are found near Lake Erie.

Small rodents called lemmings drive the great white owls’ movements. These small tundra-dwelling mammals have boom and bust cycles that peak about every four years. Apparently they reached a crescendo in the Ungava Peninsula of northern Quebec last summer, about 1,500 miles north of Columbus. This region also fostered the owl boom that triggered the invasion of four winters ago.

When lemming numbers soar, snowy owls respond en masse. Through some poorly understood homing ability, owls descend on lemming-rich tundra regions, while all but abandoning areas of low lemming numbers. Their frequency of nesting skyrockets, and nest success rates go up.

Scads of owlets are produced during lemming explosions. Once the arctic winter sets in and mammalian pickings get slimmer, these youngsters are forced to flee south. Seasoned adults tend to remain in the far north.

The most famous of the Ohio snowy owls is a bird that appeared on Thanksgiving Day on the farm of Orris Wengerd in Holmes County. Word rapidly migrated through the birding community, and owl enthusiasts soon converged on the scene.

I visited the Wengerd farm on Dec. 4, twelve days after the owl’s initial appearance. It wasn’t hard to find. While driving in on the adjacent county road, I saw the bird sitting in a field about one-third mile off. I drove into the farm and the designated parking area, and while getting out camera gear, the owl flew to the top of a feed silo about 100 feet away.

My intended short visit turned into more than seven hours, as like so many others, I became enchanted by the massive white bird. At one point, it spotted a vole in a pasture about 100 yards off, dropped from its perch, sailed down and bagged the rodent. It mostly rested atop silos and a barn — as with other owls, snowies hunt primarily at night.

At the time of my visit, about 700 birders had visited the farm. The owl remains as of this writing, and visitors probably number nearly 1,000 now. The Wengerds run a busy operation — mostly chickens and dairy cows — but have been amazingly hospitable in sharing their arctic visitor with all comers. On behalf of the birding community, many thanks to Orris Wengerd and family.

The snowy owl irruption of four winters ago spawned an amazing research project called Project Snowstorm, which studies the habits and movements of these owls. Visit that site at https://www.projectsnowstorm.org/.

And keep an eye out for large white birds. Snowy owls can materialize nearly anywhere. Please let me know of any observations.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Snowy owls irrupt!

This winter is shaping up to be another decent-sized irruption of snowy owls in the Great Lakes region, and points east. We've had a few dozen reports here in Ohio - mostly along Lake Erie but a smattering well inland. Not all of which have made the birding networks. For instance, I heard about one that was seen at the main post office in Columbus. One wonders how many owls pass through undetected, or set up turf in remote agricultural country and never come to light.

Some owls do become celebrities, and this post is about one of those owls. On Thanksgiving day, a gorgeous snowy owl appeared at a farm in Holmes County, and has been there ever since. I finally made the pilgrimage last Monday, and photos from that excursion follow.

The family that owns the farm has been exceedingly gracious to visiting birders. Even their signs reminding people to stay out of the fenced fields are very nice, and prefaced with a big WELCOME. At least 700 people have visited thus far, and unfortunately with the crowds come a few people who need such reminders.

A couple of milk cows playfully butt heads. Animals such as this are one reason why it isn't a good idea to mess around with gates, fences, and entering fields. No one wants a renegade Elsie escaping the pasture.

The celebrity owl perches high atop the peak of the largest barn on the property. In a case of strange bedfellows, it shares space with a flock of house sparrows. What the owl thought of the sparrows remains unknown, but they seemed rather excited by the presence of the massive white bird.

I arrived at the site not long after sunup, and my original intent was to spend 3-4 hours. That ultimately stretched to 7.5 hours. Once again, I was drawn in by the allure of these fascinating Arctic predators, and this was an outstanding opportunity to observe one at fairly close range, and watch its behavior.

The owl nestles in atop a feed silo - a favored resting spot. As I was driving in on the adjacent county road, I spotted the owl probably a third-mile off, sitting on the ground in the field behind the feed silos. I pulled up to the designated parking area beside a long chicken coop, hopped out and began prepping my camera gear. While I was doing that, the big owl silently swooped in and alit on the silo, only 100 feet or so away. And there he sat, for much of the day.

Snowy owls are largely nocturnal, like our other owls, and spend lengthy periods sitting in one spot during the day. They will hunt diurnally if an opportunity arises, though, and at one point it spotted a meadow vole at an incredible distance. When one of these owls spots prey, you'll know. It'll extend its neck and stand nearly upright, eyes focused like laser beams on some distant object. It then launches itself, and speeds directly towards the victim with impressive rapidity. As it nears the hapless rodent, the huge snowshoe-like feet and rapier talons are thrust forward and the owl will either snatch it up without stopping, or pounce and land on the prey.

I suppose many would find observing one owl for 7.5 hours tedious, if not downright boring, and I did outlast all of the some 30 people who stopped by that day. I would have stayed even longer, if time permitted. Like many snowy owls, this animal was utterly unconcerned about the presence of people, or any of the other activities associated with the running of a large farm. Thus, it was a great opportunity to watch and learn more of its behavior. Here, the owl strikes an amusing pose while preening. Note the massive size of its feet. Occasionally  he (this is a juvenile, and presumably a male) would briefly doze, eyes hooding and mostly shut, but for the most part it kept an eye on its surroundings.

As far as the people fawning over him, the owl paid us nearly no mind. After the first wave of visitors brought a few incautious interlopers invading spaces they shouldn't have, the landowner wisely established viewing areas, and that's where everyone remained. Nonetheless, we would have been quite obvious to him, but the owl didn't care. There are probably a few reasons for its lack of interest in us. One, it hails from northern Arctic regions that are largely beyond the occupied zone of Homo sapiens. It doesn't know what we are, especially a youngster such as this, that was born only last summer. Also, predators such as this do not waste much time on idle pursuits or focus attention on things that are of no use to them. And we are of no use to it. People, at least in this situation, do not represent potential food items, nor threats, thus we are not worthy of notice. We by and large do not exist to the owl.

The utterly blasé attitude towards people observers was striking. The bird's magnificent indifference to the lowly bipeds was grand to watch. At one point, someone made a comment to the effect of "why won't it look at us?". About the only reply I could offer is "because we are less than nothing to it."

During my time, the owl only made a few flights, mostly short hops between the silos and barn. But I was ready for him when he did move. While I did a lot of photographic work with a tripod-mounted telephoto, I kept a Canon 7D II and 300mm f/4 lens around my shoulder and ready for action. This is a great combo for in-flight shots, and that's what I used for this one.

All of us who have visited owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Wengerd, the property owner. He and his family have been exceedingly gracious in not only tolerating, but welcoming, an invasion of some 700 owl-enthusiasts thus far. I got the chance to talk with him for a while, and he seems thrilled not only with the owl and its presence, but that so many people are taking delight in seeing the rare Arctic visitor.

I would also note that the owl has found a wonderful landlord, and that's why it is staying around. This is an Amish farm, and as such the land management practices are far more eco-friendly than most farming operations are these days. The meadows and fallow fields contain a nice diversity of various plants - they aren't plowed to bare soil or corn stubble as so many farms are right now. Thus, the fields are great habitat for meadow voles, those plump little mammalian sausages with legs, and the fields on the Wengerd farm produce a nice supply of these rodents. The 50-gram voles approximate the lemmings that are a staple of the snowy owl in its Arctic haunts, and when they come down to this latitude, voles become an important dietary component in some areas.

Snowy Owl update (the last?)

After a few week dry spell of no new Snowy Owl reports, I've just received four new ones in the last two days. Some are old records being reported long after the fact; others are quite fresh. Two of these records are of owls seen as recently as today. Following is their info, should you be inclined to look:

HENRY COUNTY: Extreme eastern part of the county, being seen along County Rd. M between the county line (Wood County) east to County Rd. 7. Thanks to Todd Heilman for the report.

WOOD COUNTY: Near the intersection of Portage Road and State Rte. 235. This is about one mile SSE of the village of Weston. Thanks to Tammy Phares for this report.


As of now, we stand at 177 owls reported, from 60 counties. If you don't hail from Ohio, we've got 88 counties, so that's a big chunk of them. And I wonder how many other owls were out there that never got reported. Probably lots. Anyway you shake it, the winter of 2013/14 will probably go down as the largest documented irruption of Snowy Owls in Ohio's history. Some of the invasions of nearly a century ago might have rivaled or exceeded this one, but the numbers were not well documented. And although we've seen our way through the brunt of the invasion, I'd be surprised if a few more reports don't trickle in before all is said and done.

The map is below, and as always, I appreciate any and all reports and welcome new ones. Thanks to the myriad observers who found and reported owls.

Snowy Owl update

Well, here it is in the earliest days of March - the cusp of spring! - but it doesn't feel like it. The temperature is 12 F as I write this. Weather more befitting creatures of the Arctic than bipedal primates that are rather poorly evolved for life in the subfreezing zone. But I bring news of that most fabulous of Arctic wanderers, the Snowy Owl. Reports have predictably tapered off, but I received a small spate of new owls from a few articles that were published about the birds. These reports, alas, were of birds seen some time ago, and are not apparently present anymore at the locales of their initial sightings.

I recently saw wildlife rehabber Kristen Beck, and she filled me in a few injured owls that had been taken to rehabilitation centers. At least one of those was fixed up and released to the wild - Go, owl!

But by far the biggest breaking news on the Snowy Owl front is the nearly miraculous appearance of one in Geauga County! Geauga County, of all places! All winter long, that northeastern Ohio county was a BIG WHITE BLOB surrounded by a sea of red counties (see map below). If you add up the number of owls reported from counties abutting Geauga, the total comes to forty-seven (47)!! But no, none of the birders there could produce even one Hedwig. I don't know, maybe their binoculars needed cleaning. I had taken to tormenting my few friends up there (maybe fewer after this post) about the desolate owless landscape that they called home. But the bleak period in Geauga County ornithological history has passed - THEY HAVE AN OWL!

Photo: Tami Gingrich

The poor Snowy Owl glares at the photographer from behind a post, no doubt peeved at being found out. Apparently it has been in this Geauga County locale since December. Darn good job of evading the birdwatchers by this sensational hooter, if you ask me.

Anyway, to the gist of this post. As of now, we stand at 169 owls reported, from 59 counties. If you don't hail from Ohio, we've got 88 counties, so that's a big chunk of them. And I wonder how many other owls were out there that never got reported. Probably lots. Anyway you shake it, this will probably go down as the largest documented irruption of Snowy Owls in Ohio's history. Some of the invasions of nearly a century ago might have rivaled or exceeded this one, but the numbers were not well documented.

The map is below. Look for Geauga County way up in the northeastern corner of the state. It's the county with a numeral one (1). Pay no mind to the fact that it surrounded by counties with lots of owls. I'm sure the Geauga County Birding Association members are out whooping up a celebratory storm tonight, now that they no longer must bear this owlbatross around their collective necks.

Snowy Owls get major coverage in newspaper

It's nice to see a bird species garnering more ink in the papers than most politicians. Today's Columbus Dispatch featured an article on Snowy Owls, peppered with photos from a number of Ohio photographers. The images are stunning, and a must-see. Read the article RIGHT HERE.

Snowy Owls have garnered lots of press this winter. Their irruption into the Midwest and eastern U.S. has been nothing short of phenomenal, and of such a scope that probably no one alive would have remembrances of a comparable event. It would probably be necessary to go back to the 1920's to recall an irruption of similar scale.

The Ohio total, insofar as I know, stands at 165 owls in 56 counties. New reports have tapered off, but still trickle in and I'm sure we'll learn of more. Many of these reports have come well after the fact, as observers learn that someone is interested in sightings after reading an article such as the one cited in this post. My updated map is below, and shows an interesting but expected distributional pattern. Owl reports are mostly lacking from the southeastern third of Ohio. That's the unglaciated hill country, which features rough topography and lots of forest. In large, not great Snowy Owl habitat. Owls have been reported from most of the glaciated northern and western parts of the state, and it isn't very daring to speculate that our large Arctic visitors have occurred in ALL of those counties.

For more details on Snowy Owl sightings in Ohio, CLICK HERE.

A very lucky Snowy Owl, and an owl in prison

With well over 100 Snowy Owls thus far reported in Ohio - biggest irruption in many decades - interesting stories are bound to arise. These birds draw lots of attention, and nearly everyone who has the fortune of seeing one is suitably impressed. An upshot of the owls' conspicuousness and popularity is that we get lots of reports from people that aren't in the birding network. That allows a better tally and more thorough documentation of an invasion (to use a much overused descriptor) that we aren't likely to see on this scale for decades, if history is a guideline.

One downside, for the owls, is that nearly all of them are juveniles, and utterly unfamiliar with vehicles. Couple that naiveté with their propensity to hunt near roads, and fly close to the ground, and owl-vehicle strikes will happen. I've heard of at least four cases of Snowy Owls killed in collisions with vehicles so far, and some say that this is the biggest cause of mortality for owls south of the breeding grounds, at least in populous areas. 

So, when I first saw these photos, I was bummed - another owl gets grilled. But a quick skim of the email they were attached to reveals a happy ending, it seems. The gentleman was driving along a rural Wood County road when the owl came out of nowhere and bashed into the front of his pickup truck.

The collision was hard enough to crack one of the slats in the grill - these birds can weigh 4-5 lbs, or more - and the owl popped right through and was stuck between the grill and the engine compartment. But it is still alive, and fortunate indeed that the right guy was driving the truck.

The driver quickly worked the owl free, and placed it on the passenger seat in the warm cab of the truck. While the bird was undoubtedly a bit dazed and confused, and some feathers appear out of place, it doesn't look too worse for the wear. Anyway, while the guy was no doubt pondering what to do with the animal, it shook itself off, and darted out the door. The driver reports that it flew strongly across the fields, and out of sight. Here's hoping it suffered no lasting damage. If it had to collide with a vehicle, it's probably good that it happened to be this one, as many people probably wouldn't have been able to deal with the situation rapidly, and successfully extricate the bird.

UPDATE: This same owl, apparently, is doing well and hunting in the same area, at least as of January 1. Look for it near the junction of South Dixie Highway and State Route 281 in Wood County, not far south of the town of Rudolph.

This video comes from one of Ohio's prisons, and offers an interesting choice of habitats. The person who made the video reports that there are plenty of fields and wide-open habitats around the facility, and they are hopeful that the bird will stay for a while. It's pretty cool to see the big white owl cruise right over the concertina wire.

Snowy Owls continue to turn up in new spots about every day, with at least 113 reported in 39 counties to date. An update and map are RIGHT HERE.

Snowy Owl in urban Columbus!

The urban jungle of Columbus, Ohio, about ten minutes from my office. I was peacefully eating my lunch at my desk today, when word came down from Scott Albaugh that one of his students had just seen a Snowy Owl. The bird was sitting high atop a water tower along Huntley Blvd, right where the yellow stick pin in this map is. Whoa! This I had to see!

I asked one of our administrative assistants, Vicki, if she would like to see (hopefully) a real live Hedwig, she said of course (who wouldn't!), and ten minutes later we were on the scene.

This is the street view, courtesy my Droid's camera. I had driven my non-field car into the office today, and it was clean as a whistle - no scope, binoculars, cameras, nothing. I borrowed a pair of bins before leaving, but upon arrival found another dozen birders there, with plenty of optical power.

Scott's student deserves the Medal of Eagle Eyes for spotting this owl. This unmagnified view shows the tower, from where we gazed upon the owl. I suppose if you click this photo to enlarge, you can make it a small protuberance on the left side of the summit of the tower, but it isn't obvious. Furthermore, this is not the type of locale that one would necessarily be on their toes for Snowy Owls.

Photo: Karen Chism

Yet there was the bird, a young of the year female, showing lots of dark stippling. By now, other birders were arriving, as word had been put out via Facebook and the Ohio Birds Listserv. It had been sitting up there for at least an hour at this point. I appreciate Karen Chism allowing me the use of her photos - pretty darn good, considering the distance!

SIDEBAR: I have noticed an increasing trend, and a rather disturbing one, of criticism of owl photos. Facebook is the place to see this sort of strange and often ignorant attack. Someone will post a photo, often like this one, and someone else will jump in and accuse them of being too close to the owl, and "bothering" it. While I'm not denying that can happen, in many cases they are looking at an image that was taken with a 500 mm lens, like Karen's, that was then cropped heavily. Look at the first landscape image, then the above image. Cameras can do amazing things these days. Don't launch attacks on photographers if you don't know the circumstances in which the photo was made, please. I've even noticed that a number of photographers must feel guilt-tripped, as there seems to be an increasing tendency for some to make sure and note their image was "heavily cropped" in an attempt to stave off the keyboard warriors' attacks before they start.

Photo: Karen Chism

After we watched the great white owl for a while, it began to stretch and shake out its wings a bit. Then, Presto! It leapt into the air, quickly gained altitude, and headed unerringly due south. It'd be interesting to know where it is now.

This wasn't the only new owl to come to light today. I heard of four others, and insofar as I can calculate, there have been reports of 112 owls in 39 counties since the first one was reported on November 22. CLICK HERE for the latest update and map.

The origin of all these Snowy Owls?

As about everyone who is into birds in eastern North America knows, this is the winter of the Snowy Owl (I wrote about them HERE, and am keeping an updated map and numbers of the owls in Ohio). Even scores of nonbirders are aware of the incursion of these massive tundra owls, thanks to intensive coverage in the media. A common question surrounding this phenomenon centers on their origins. Just about everyone I've talked to about Snowy Owls wants to know where they originated.

That's an easy question, in a general sense. The Arctic tundra. But that answer covers a lot of ground. The tundra, of course, blankets the upper rim of the entire North American continent (not to mention polar regions around the entire top of the world). So, the refined question becomes: "Where exactly are these owls coming from?". That's often a hard thing to pinpoint. It's not like the Arctic is crawling with birders, and vast regions of the tundra see few if any people, especially people who are keeping specific tabs on Snowy Owls.

Bruce Mactavish provides the likely answer on his Newfoundland Birding Blog. Bruce has birding the Canadian island of Newfoundland for nearly 40 years, and his is a well known name amongst birders. We're pretty happy with our 61 (reported to date) Snowy Owls in Ohio, and that is an incredible number. Just imagine last weekend in southeastern Newfoundland. Bruce and other birders found a total of 301 (yes, 301!) Snowy Owls during their weekend wanderings! He has absolutely stunning photos of some of these birds on his blog.

Anyway, Bruce made various inquiries of researchers who were in the high reaches of the tundra, where the Snowy Owls breed, last summer. To cut to the chase, it appears that the northernmost reaches of Quebec experienced a peak population of lemmings, and the owl nesting success spiked big time in response to the bounty of prey. Mactavish shared an amazing photo of an owl nest ringed with the carcasses of 70 lemmings augmented with eight voles posted on his blog. The eggs haven't even hatched yet! There was certainly no shortage of food for those owlets, and one might assume that most of the other nests in northern Quebec also resembled fortresses surrounded by ramparts of dead rodents. Researchers operating in tundra regions west, east, and north of this area reported low to normal numbers of Snowy Owls.

 

The area in red shows the approximate region where our Snowy Owls likely originated. Owls have been turning up all over the Great Lakes region, and the eastern seaboard of Canada and the U.S. Some of have made it as far south as North Carolina and Bermuda (yes, Bermuda!). Owls are still turning up, so keep your eyes peeled.

 

Snowy Owl report for Ohio (with regular updates)

UPDATE NOTICE: I first created this article on December 10, summarizing all of the Snowy Owl reports that I was aware of in Ohio. I then shared this with the 2,200+ member Birding Ohio Facebook page (Kudos to Jeff Loughman for founding that group). More reports came in, and the owl tally is now up to 70 birds in 30 counties. I have been hearing about new owls daily, and I will update the map and running tally below as new information arrives. LAST UPDATE: December 19th.

  

Photo: John Howard, Highland County, Ohio, December 1, 2013

I wrote about the ongoing irruption of Snowy Owls HERE on December 1, and at that time about a dozen of the big white(ish) birds had been reported in Ohio. Well, they just keep on coming! To date, I've heard of 70 owls in the state, and they are attracting attention far and wide. Most of the local newspapers in areas where the owls have appeared have written about them, and Snowy Owls have made national media as well.

One particularly noteworthy story involved JFK Airport in New York City. Owls have been dropping in to feed along the runways, and word leaked out that several had been shot by airport personnel. There had been five owl-plane collisions, and the airport felt that extermination with extreme prejudice was required. Of course, there are other ways of handling such a situation, and Boston Logan Airport provided the example. There, runway owls have been live-trapped and released elsewhere for many years. After a hue and a cry from the public, JFK to their great credit quickly adopted the more humane method of owl deterrence. NBC4 in New York covered the story, and Corey Finger of 10000 Birds was featured. He did a great job, and this news story was probably instrumental in effecting change. That piece IS HERE.

Anyway, back to the Buckeye State. Every day, it seems, one or a few more owls come to light. Following is a map showing their distribution, along with a number representing how many have been reported in each county. If you know of any additional owls, please send me a note: jimmccormac35@gmail.com

NOTE ABOUT SIGHTINGS: Many of these birds have not lingered, apparently, and were only seen on one day. Several reports have come to light several days after the fact, too. In some cases, the landowners have made it clear that they did not want their location made public due to private property issues. I and others try to run down the specifics of sightings, and when possible make the information available to the birding community. Two good places to keep up to date on Snowy Owl sightings are the Ohio Birds Listserv, and the Facebook Birding Ohio site.



Snowy Owls invade Ohio (and elsewhere)!

Photo: John Howard

John Howard snapped the image above, of a big beautiful immature female Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus, near twilight, tonight! This sighting is especially significant as the bird is in southern Ohio, and we seldom get these Arctic visitors that far south. This owl is frequenting an area along State Route 73, just north of the Adams County line in Highland County.

The Highland County bird is certainly not the only one in the state. At least eleven others were reported today. One was in western Ohio, in Paulding County, and the others were along Lake Erie, with Cleveland the hotspot. About eight have been along the lakefront there, and two were seen by John Pogacnik at Conneaut Harbor. You can be sure that more are out there awaiting discovery, and if one turned up in Highland County, they could be anywhere. Double-check anything that looks like a distant white bag caught up in corn stubble in a field.

Snowy Owls are appearing in numbers beyond Ohio, and at least one has made it is far south as North Carolina. Our neighbor to the west, Indiana, had at least ten today from various locales, and numerous others have turned up around the Great Lakes.

It was just two winters ago that we had another notable flight, and I got the opportunity to talk about those owls with NPR's Melissa Block, RIGHT HERE. It may well be that this winter's flight will eclipse that 2011/12 invasion. Keep your eyes peeled!

Snowy Owl - Findlay, Ohio

Photo: Mike and Dianne Stoner

Mike and Dianne Stoner found this beautiful chunk of an owl last Friday, March 30, at Findlay Reservoir in Hancock County, Ohio. Snowy Owls are often tame, and this one certainly was. It didn't even flinch at nearby people.

There seems to have been a small run of Snowy Owls over the past week or so, possibly birds that were even further south than central Ohio, and are headed back north. In spite of several searchers, no one was able to relocate this owl the following day. It's probably halfway back to the tundra, but if you're around Findlay Reservoir, keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks to Mike and Dianne for sharing their great find.

Adult male Snowy Owl

Photo: Chuck Slusarczyk

I've been wanting to share this photo ever since Chuck Slusarczyk sent it along a few days back. It shows an adult male Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus. Chuck snapped this shot at Cleveland Hopkins Airport on March 10th, and it is the second owl seen there (the other was a heavily black-barred immature bird).

Virtually all of the Snowy Owls that make it as far south as Ohio are young birds, which are prominently marked with black, as SEEN HERE. The adult males are quite striking; it's as if they have been carved from a block of ivory.

Thanks to Chuck for sharing this photo. I've been fortunate to be able to feature some of Chuck's other work before, such as his amazing Blizzard of Gulls photos. If you would like to see more of Chuck's photos, CLICK HERE.