It’s looking more and more like the
winter of 2017-18 is going to be a big year for snowy owls in southern New
England. Large numbers of the iconic white birds have been observed throughout
the Upper Midwest and Northeast since late November, and many have turned up in
Rhode Island.
Project SNOWstorm, a volunteer-based
snowy owl tracking organization, is predicting that the attractive birds will
invade much of the northern tier of the United States this winter. Hundreds of
birds have already been sighted, including some as far south as North Carolina,
Oklahoma and Missouri.
Scott Wiedensaul, director of
Project SNOWstorm, said it’s difficult to predict how many birds will travel to
the area or how long they will stay. “There’s a little bit of voodoo and black
magic in all of this,” he told Audubon
magazine. But the signs point to it being a good year for snowy owl watching.
Rhode Island has so far had visits
by at least 17 snowy owls in recent weeks, according to Rachel Farrell, a
member of the state’s Avian Records Committee. University of Rhode Island
ornithologist Peter Paton reported seeing seven snowy owls on Block Island last
week, and local birdwatchers have reported additional owls at Sachuest Point
National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, East Matunuck State Beach in South
Kingstown, along the shores of the Narrow River in Narragansett, and elsewhere.
One was even photographed perched on a chimney in a residential neighborhood in
Providence, and another Providence bird – or perhaps the same one – was located
at the headquarters of Save the Bay.
Just one or two snowy owls usually visit Rhode
Island during a typical winter.
Snowy owls spend most of their lives in the Arctic
feeding on lemmings on the tundra. But Farrell said that about every four
years, when lemming numbers are high, the owls lay more eggs than usual. Many
of the birds that hatch from those eggs end up migrating south in winter after
being forced from their Arctic habitat by adult owls due to the reduced
availability of food in the deep snow.
“It’s all due to the population cycling of
lemmings,” she said. “They’re a boom or bust animal.”
Canadian scientists reported that snowy owls
successfully raised an especially large number of young birds last summer.
This year’s irruption of snowy owls into the U.S.
is not unprecedented. Four years ago, the the country experienced the largest
influx of snowy owls since at least the 1920s, when several thousand owls spent
the winter south of the Canadian border. Some traveled to places they had never
before been reported, including Jacksonville, Fla., and Bermuda. More than 400
were observed in Pennsylvania alone, a state that seldom records more than 10
in a year.
The birds that visit Rhode Island
are usually found on beaches, farm fields and airports, which mimic their
tundra homes, where they search for mice and voles. Owls that spend time in
coastal locations often hunt for wintering ducks, something they don’t often
eat on their breeding grounds.
As exciting as it is to see a snowy
owl, they can also be a nuisance and a safety hazard at airports. Paton and
fellow URI professor Scott McWilliams will attempt to capture and relocate any
owls that show up at Quonset State Airport and other undesirable locations this
winter.
The large number of snowy owls
visiting the area is not necessarily a sign that the breeding population is
growing, however. Farrell said that the population of snowy owls breeding in
North America has declined by about 64 percent since 1970, though scientists
are not sure why.
Unlike so many other rare birds that occasionally turn
up in southern New England, snowy owls are easy to identify. Weighing in at
about six pounds, it is the heaviest owl species in North America, and its
white plumage and piercing yellow eyes make it unmistakable. Adult males may be
pure white, the perfect camouflage for a bird that spends much of its life in a
snowy environment. Younger birds are much more visible, with contrasting gray
barring on their white bellies and wings that make them stand out as they perch
on fence posts, beaches and snow-covered fields.
The Audubon Society of Rhode Island advises that
those interested in going in search of snowy owls in the area should bring
along binoculars or a spotting scope and stay at least 200 feet away from the
birds, as the owls can be skittish. It also recommends staying quiet and refraining
from making sudden movements that may frighten them. The owls are already
rather stressed after their long migration and their efforts to find food in
unfamiliar places, and rambunctious humans will add to their stress.
“We
still don’t know the magnitude of this year’s irruption yet,” concluded
Farrell. “But it has already been fairly substantial. And it started a little
earlier than the last one, so that may be a good sign for what’s to come.”
This story first appeared on EcoRI.org on December 14, 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment