Snowy Owl Alert
THIS COLD FRONT could bring more than snow to New England this weekend: be on the lookout for Snowy Owls.
By mid November, Snowys usually begin to show up south of their Arctic range here in North America. We’ve already got Snowys along the coast in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York (Long Island). I suspect others will turn up inland once birders get out this weekend. Here’s an eBird map of recent sightings.
By the way, Snow Geese are still honkin’ and flying here in Vermont and New York. Along with them, we could see an influx of Rough-legged Hawks, Snow Buntings and other wintering birds this weekend. Keep up with the Snow Goose migration at my Snow Goose Scoop.
That shot above, from Killington Peak here in Vermont several years ago, comes from my pal Kent McFarland. Below is one of mine from Montauk, NY.
Addendum (November 13): Not a bad prediction on my part. Here’s the latest news: Snowy Owls Arrive.
Just saw two at Portland Jetport today (January 15, 2018)!
Awesome. I think this is the first sighting for Southern New Brunswick Canada this season.
A snowy owl flew in and sat on a ledge last night at a local McDonalds restaurant in Saint John, New Brunswick which was photographed by a Josh Comeau. Josh told me that he stayed on the ledge the whole time while he ate. If you go to New Brunswick Birders on Facebook he is going to post his pics there once he has been approved to join the group.
Left you a PM on Facebook. As to SNOWs we have had two here in the heart of the Finger Lakes , NY as well as a few RLHAs. Songbirds remain aloof and it has been a much too silent fall. Saw-whet owl migration is horribly slow.
After losing study birds to ebird crowd sourcing we do not report any raptors and only add rarities months after the sightings.
Nice! A Northern Shrike here at the farm in Cabot.
Rollin