Subject: [Tweeters] Snowy Owl stories
Date: Nov 20 22:13:48 2011
From: Wayne Weber - contopus at telus.net


Dennis,

I believe your recollection is off just slightly. The biggest recent flight
year was 1973-4 (the flight of the century?), not 1974-5. The Ladner
Christmas Bird Count in 1973 tallied 107 Snowy Owls, which I believe still
stands as the all-time North American high count on a CBC. The following
year (1974) we counted only 17 Snowy Owls, which would qualify as an "echo
flight"-- still more owls than are seen in most "flight years".

When I heard one day in November 1973 that one observer had counted 33 Snowy
Owls just on the south jetty at Iona Island, I knew that an event of
historic proportions was underway!

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Dennis
Paulson
Sent: November-20-11 12:53 PM
To: TWEETERS tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Snowy Owl stories

Hello, tweeters.

Bud asked for more Snowy Owl stories.

I remember the winter of 74-75, when they seemed to be everywhere, including
sitting on telephone poles ini residential sections of Seattle and on the
roof opposite my office at UW, where a spotting scope set up on the bird had
visitors throughout the days it was present. I can't recall now whether that
was the winter or a subsequent one when on one visit we could see >50 from
one spot on the dike at Boundary Bay, which has always been the hotspot for
Snowies.

One interesting thing about them in this area is that water birds represent
an important part of their diet. They go out over the water, probably mostly
at dusk, and pick off birds such as Buffleheads and Horned Grebes and
probably larger species as well. They take Dunlins, Red Phalaropes, and
other shorebirds. By no means are they restricted to lemmings and voles,
although they may get some in the stomachs of those Short-eared Owls they'll
be hunting.

Dennis
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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