where are all the snowy owls

Maybe it is just eastern ontario, but I have yet to see any snowy owls and have not even seen them posted on NPN this year. Have they been around or is this a mystery like the black bird deaths?

Lindy, if you really want to get snowies, contact Ray Barlow , an NPN memebr (or former one) who is also in Ontario. http://www.rayswildlife.com/

He gets lots at Amherst Island. Here is his snowy Gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/raymondjbarlow/amherst


Good luck -

Sandy

Snowy Owls, as well as Boreal and Hawk-owl, are cyclic and don't show up every year. At least at the southern edge of their winter range. When I lived in New Jersey we'd see peak numbers every 3-7 years. I don't know what the status is in Ontario.

There's only been a couple of reports that I know of from here in South Dakota, which is very odd. Just not a great year for them moving south? Hard to tell.

Thanks everyone! I usually see a bunch of them on Amherst and Wolf island but thus far none. I am concerned due to the arrival of over 80 windmills on one island. While the clean energy issue is good, the noise level is high. I am hoping that it is just a cyclical pattern and we did not destroy yet another wonderful habitat. Anyone have experience with this issue?

Here on Long Island there has been none reported thus far. I wonder if snow cover is a factor. To my mind the less snow the better the hunting might be.

Hi Lindy,

Back in a former life (biologist) I was involved for about 5 years in a long-term study of Snowy Owls (stuff like winter territoriality, population dynamics, etc.). We observed huge annual variation in abundance of the birds on their wintering grounds on our study site (not far from Calgary, Alberta). We were in constant contact with other research teams and they noticed the same thing. So...it IS perfectly normal. I have seen anecdotal references to the length of the cycles and other anecdotal musings on what drives them, but as far as I know neither are truly known. And, being a very mobile species, there's really no reason to assume a priori that the abundance variations on the wintering grounds reflect true population fluctuations (the birds may just be somewhere else).

Cheers...

Brad

Snowy Owls are irruptive; they move south for food. Something like deep snow or a crash in the lemming population will send them looking. The theory for may years was that if the lemming counts were high and snow depth was low, they would stay in the northerly part of their range. Birds of North America notes that some aspects of the theory - the crash of lemming populations across the entire arctic, for example - have been challenged. BNA doesn't suggest an alternate theory.

But it's not a cause for alarm if they don't show up in southern latitudes for one or two years.

We apparently had one in central Washington a few weeks ago, which isn't a normal occurrence. I'm still waiting for a repeat of the '05 irruption though. It would be great to shoot them again.

Max

We have had a few sightings in eastern MA this year. They were few and far between last year and they seem to be staying elsewhere again this year.