With So Many Snowies to Study, Scientists Are Discovering How Little We Know About This Bird

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/birds/so-many-snowies-study-scientists-are-discovering-how-little-we-know-about-bird



Photograph by Francois Portmann


After a banner year for Arctic rodents, the greatest snowy owl explosion in half a century has descended on the eastern United States--and it's teaching us about these nomads from the north.

By Scott Weidensaul
Published: March-April 2014

No one saw it coming. The earliest signs were from Cape Race, Newfoundland, just about the easternmost point on the continent--the very definition of the end of the road. It's not the sort of place that usually makes news: When the Titanic sank, Cape Race got the distress signal, but that was back in 1912. It's been pretty quiet ever since.

In November, though, people started noticing a bizarre number of snowy owls there. One or two would be normal, but 18, as reported on Nov. 22? "It is now officially a BIG Snowy Owl event," Newfoundland birding blogger Bruce Mactavish wrote excitedly. "How big will it get? . . . In extreme Snowy Owl years I think the Cape Race road record is more than 30. . . . [this] may be just a hint of what is about to happen."

The next day there were 42 owls there.



FULL story and more photos at link.

[Feral Child]

1. Cool story

Cool birds.

Thanks for posting, I really enjoy reading these sorts of articles.