Snowy Owls are popping up all over Eastern Mass and Cape Cod. Initial sightings in November were recently made on Plum Island followed by Crane’s Beach, Deer Island in Winthrop, Logan Airport, Point of Pines in Revere, behind the Walmart in Lynn, the Nahant Causeway, Duxbury Beach, Green Island in the outer Boston Harbor Islands, a cornfield in Lincoln, Norton’s Point on Martha’s Vineyard and Lighthouse Beach in West Dennis. The Mass Birding List has been filled with many postings on Snowy Owls. Peter Bono from Yarmouthport posted a message on the Mass Birding List from an Ontario bird list that offers up insights on the high number of Snowy Owls that are being seen south of the Arctic. Recent online postings were made on the Mass Audubon Bird Sightings list for the Cape as well as on the Cape Cod Bird Club list thanks to Mark Faherty and others.
The posting from the Ontario Bird list states that “Snowy Owls are being seen south of the Arctic in high numbers this fall. Most of the early arriving owls have been first winter males hatched last summer. Reports last summer indicated that lemming numbers were high across the Eastern Canadian Arctic from Churchill, Manitoba, to Bylot Island, Nunavut.” Click here for the full story. It is very interesting to note the discussion about the high numbers of Snowy Owls compares both a very good breeding season and a possible late season crash in the lemming population.
For those with an interest in more detailed information on Snowy Owls, here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their highly informative All About Birds website. In addition to this, you may want to take a closer look at the excellent research and tracking efforts being performed by Norman Smith from Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum. Norm was recently profiled in this blog for his work tracking Saw-Whet owls. Click here to read more online about his fascinating Snowy Owl Telemetry Research Project. Norm has been studying Snowy Owls for almost thirty years and has recently been attaching satellite transmitters on Snowy Owls to identify and understand their migration routes. This information will be used for further research as well as for informative public education programs.
Please enjoy a number of recent Snowy Owl photos from Lighthouse Beach in West Dennis (Nov 30) and from an old seawall behind Walmart on Rt. 1A in Lynn (Dec 02). The images have been posted online. Click here for a look!
Enjoy!
Craig Gibson
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wow gorgeous pictures. thanks for sharing!
Posted by: laura caton | December 09, 2008 at 03:30 PM