In the winter of 2004-05, while Mike P. had several Snowy Owls in his "neighborhood" (north Oregon coast), there was one lone Snowy Owl in Newport (central Oregon coast). While his owls nabbed mostly rats... the Newport Snowy Owl seemed to prefer big birds, mostly grebes and gulls. I know this to be true from direct observation almost every day it was there...I watched it hunt, eating back on its roost, and I visited its primary roosts when it was away.

I found Dennis P.'s comparison of a Bufflehead to a pound of lemmings quite interesting....as well as his mention of grebes and ducks (but not gulls).

I'm curious to know what these Snowy Owls are eating primarily in other areas. Does anyone see them nabbing big birds and/or see evidence of it. The Newport Snowy Owl very often hunted and nabbed a big bird right after sunset. Anyone else see gulls taken by Snowy Owls? I've never heard a flock of gulls shriek in terror quite so loudly as when the Snowy Owl was on patrol.

Cindy Ashy