A Snowy Winter for Ohio? was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 18/No. 1, Winter 2014.
For the third year in a row, the snowy owl may be proving that winter is an exciting time to observe the great outdoors. This nomadic bird breeds throughout the arctic, and its population is tied tightly to that of the lemming, its primary food source. Lemming populations are themselves cyclical; when lemmings are scarce, snowy owls may not breed at all, but when they are plentiful, owls may raise up to a dozen young. As the lemming population heads back down, the multitude of young owls have less to eat and are in theory more likely to head south for winter.
The southern “irruption” occurs about once every four years, though the extent and geographic range of it varies considerably. However, this year may be the third in a row that the birds are appearing in the U.S. in high numbers, which has some scientists asking if another factor is at play in their arctic habitat.
In 2011, they showed up in elevated numbers throughout the upper third of the U.S., and 2013, they were sighted from the northern Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest. This year, a spike of snowy owl sightings is being reported in the Northeast and Great Lakes. So far in Ohio they have mostly been spotted along the Lake Erie shore, but also as far south as Chillicothe.
Male snowy owls are almost entirely white, while females and young have more brown barring. Look for them perched high overlooking flat, grassy or marshy habitats that resemble their familiar tundra. Problematically, the birds seem to favor the wide-open terrain of airports. For a map of sightings (or to report your own!) visit ebird.org.