I meant to comment about this the other day, but Bruce Moorhead gave
a good explanation. Snowy Owls are willing to feed just about any
time of day or night. I think on their wintering grounds they feed a
lot at dusk, when they may have an advantage over other birds in the
low light and when some rodents become active. They presumably eat
voles while down here, especially when Townsend's Vole, a common
meadow-inhabiting species, is at a population high. They also eat a
lot of birds, both land and water, on their wintering grounds, and I
wouldn't be too surprised if they were the cause of the reduction in
the Snow Bunting population at Damon Point in the last month. I
examined a bunch of Snowy Owl pellets from Long Beach during the big
invasion of 73-74 and found them full of water bird bones - I recall
Sanderlings, Dunlins, Horned Grebes, and I think a Bufflehead. The
fact that we don't see them flying much in the day time (unless we
disturb them) tells the story of when they feed around here.

They not only take varied prey but are able to take quite large prey.
When I spent a summer in the Canadian Arctic, we had a King Eider
nesting near our camp that we would check out every day. One day she
was gone, the nest obviously disturbed, and we found her remains in
the nearby Snowy Owl nest. I imagine she was taken right off the nest
and carried a few hundred yards. As shorebird chicks appeared in
July, the owls augmented their lemming diet with the even easier-to-
catch chicks.

Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382

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