Tweeters,
The Snowy Owls that regularly winter at Logan Airport in Boston go after the
sea ducks that hang out there.
Gene Bullock
Poulsbo
bullockg at earthlink.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata at pacifier.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:47 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Snowy Owl irruptions


> It turns out that, while lemmings are an important food resource
> for Snowy Owls, Snowies have a fairly varied diet which includes
> voles, deer mice, hares, ptarmigans and seabirds up in their usual tundra
> haunts. During the irruption of 1996-97, snowies were seen chasing
> Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings along the coast.
>
> See:
> PARMELEE, D.F. 1992. Snowy Owl. In The birds of North American
> No. 10 (A. Poole, P. Stetttenheim, and F. Gill, eds.). The Acad.
> of Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, and The Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, DC.
>
> and for a re-examination of the controversial lemming/Snowy Owl
> connection see:
>
> KERLINGER, P., M.R.LEIN, and B.J.SEVICK. 1985. Distribution and
> population fluctuations of wintering Snowy Owls (Nyctea scandiaca) in
> North America. Canadian J. Zoo. 63:1829-1834.
>
> Kerlinger suggests that Snowy Owl irruptions are more probably
> associated with weather events rather than lemming events.
>
> --
> Mike Patterson
> Astoria, OR
> celata at pacifier.com
>
> Book Review: _Rare Bird_ by Maria Mudd Ruth
> http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/003190.html
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