Subject: [Tweeters] Re: thoughts about Snowy Owls and their aficionados
Date: Dec 12 16:23:19 2011
From: notcalm at comcast.net - notcalm at comcast.net


Great work, Mike. Much appreciated.


Dan Reiff
Mercer Island

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata at pacifier.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 3:58:42 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: thoughts about Snowy Owls and their aficionados

I collected owl pellets during the 2005-06 irruption to analyze the
diet of owls at the South Jetty of the Columbia River, a place where
there are no lemmings, I found that they eat mostly BLACK RATS.
The results were published in _Northwest Naturalist_ [Spring 2007
88(1):12-14]. Here's the bare-bones data table.

Number of pellets examined = 62
Average length = 8.0 ? 2.0 cm (range = 4.0 to 12.5)
Average width = 3.1 ? 0.4 cm (range = 1.9 to 4.2)

Contents:
Rattus rattus 40%
Red Phalarope 31%
jay sp. (prob Steller's Jay) 1%
Bufflehead 19%
unknown rodent (prob Microtus) 1%
unknown bird 8%

As to their health, Kerlinger and Lein (1988) found that 45% of the
specimens examined had moderate to heavy fat deposits, and traumatic
injuries were the major cause of mortality. Causes of death or injury
were collisions with unknown objects (46.5%), automobiles (14.1%),
utility lines (4.2%) and airplanes (1.4%); also gunshot wounds
(12.7%), electrocution (5.6%), fishing tackle (1.4%). Only 14.1% was
believed due to starvation.

The web page I built in 2005-06 is still available at:
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/SNOW/SNOW_FAQ.html


--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
Manx Shearwater or something like it...
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/northcoastdiaries/23391/

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