Hey Oregonians and Washingtonians -

Jesse Ellis here. I've birded in the Pac NW off and on, and still subscribe
to the lists there, although I'm in Madison, WI, now. I know there have
been many Snowy Owl reports there in the past few weeks, and people are
speculating that there's an invasion there. Well, it's everywhere. A few
days ago I started mapping reports in WI and MN, and that quickly expanded
to ND, SD and MI. Given the good coverage in the Pacific NW, I decided to
add those states as well.

So, check out this map thus far: http://g.co/maps/r9ub2.

The map is currently public, so if you want, you can use a google account
to add sightings or edit sightings as they occur. I will try as well, but I
will be limited - this appears to be a major invasion and I suspect I will
be challenged just dealing with MN and WI.

A couple of major points: all of the points on this map are intentionally
plotted inexactly. The point here is to get a look at the overall
distribution in our area. Because google maps is a very different sort of
public forum than our birding listserves, I want to keep this points with
significant error for the safety of the birds. I have generally plotted the
point to the nearest population center mentioned in the posting to the
listserve. If you want to get more information on a particular sighting,
you'll need to check the appropriate listserve. If you are going to add
points to the list, please use the rule of major population center noted
above. DO NOT USE THIS MAP FOR FINDING EXACT SNOWY OWL SITES!

Another major point! Only a small fraction of the reported individuals are
currently in eBird <http://ebird.org/>! Ideally, I wouldn't have to make my
own map, because everyone sighting these birds would put their list into
eBird <http://ebird.org/>. However, I can't legitimately add someone else's
sightings to eBird <http://ebird.org/>. If you haven't tried this amazing
tool for recording and viewing bird sightings, I suggest you give it a
shot. You can now even include links to photos if you want to support an ID
or simply make your list look snazzy.

If you see that I've missed a few, please let me know (or add them!). It's
been tough sifting through the posts to make sure I haven't missed any, so
please don't take offense!

I'm being rather liberal with accepting sightings, including some 2nd hand
reports. Snowies are one of those birds that the general public really has
little trouble IDing (IMO), and I suspect that in an invasion year most of
such reports are probably reliable.

So, take a look at the map, and if you know of reports in the rest of the
NW (BC, ID and MT), I'd be happy to hear of them. Hopefully I'll get some
compatriots to start adding the Mideast (OH and IN) and NE, where many
individuals have been reported along the coast.

Jesse Ellis,
Madison, WI




--
Jesse Ellis
Post-doctoral Researcher
Dept. of Zoology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, Dane Co, WI
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