Three Owls in One Week

Early Thursday morning, I saw the Snowy owl again about a quarter to a half a mile from the original location and wanted to share "a few" more pictures and videos. Sorry if this is over kill. This bird was such a fun subject to photograph. As you can see the light was much better Thursday morning than Wednesday evening when I first photographed this bird. For those of you who are wondering why a Snowy Owl is so streaked instead of almost completely white like the ones you may have seen on television, the nearly all white birds are adult males. Even the adult males have fine streaking, and the more coarsely streaked birds are first year males or female. Female Snowy Owls are more coarsely streaked than the first year males. I believe this very coarsely streaked bird to be female.

This year Snowy Owls have been reported all over Winsconsin and now several have been sighted in Illinois. Snowy Owls are typically residents of the North Pole, but a few of them come down to eat our rodents every few winters when there is a shortage of their favorite food--lemmings. This year, there are far more Snowy Owls than typical already. Birders are calling this an "irruption" of Snowy Owls. Strangely, however, I read an article on ebird.com that lemming numbers have been high this year and speculates a different reason for this "irruption" (http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/got-snowies).

These birds are very easy to approach apparently because they are not used to seeing people in the Arctic. I pulled up beside this one in my car, and she did not seem at all concerned about my presence. As first she gave me some curious looks. After that it seemed like was uninterested, or perhaps she was giving me the "cold" shoulder by looking away most of the time my car was there.



Sleepy . . .













. . . and here are a few videos I made of the bird. The first is from Wednesday evening. The other two are from Thursday morning. The last one is my favorite.







Also Thursday evening I stopped by my the house of Given Harper in Normal to see and grab a few shots of the gray morph Eastern Screech-owl he had reported to be in the screech-owl box in his yard. Thanks to Given for my lifer Eastern Screech-owl!



I went back Friday afternoon for better light and got a short break in the clouds.





I was glad that Given was able to see the Snowy Owl with his wife and students on Thursday night. Friday, I heard from Rich Laramore, who wanted to come from Christian County to see the Snowy Owl and the screech-owl. I told him what I knew about where the Snowy had last been seen, and checked with Given to make sure he was okay with me bringing Rich to see the screech-owl Saturday morning, I called Rich and found out he had missed the Snowy, but was on his way South. I arranged a place to meet, and we went to see the Eastern Screech-owl. This bird was a lifer for Rich as well. Afterward, we met up with Les Allen and went to Moraine View State Park. We walked through several rows of evergreens hoping to flush an owl to no avail. The highlight of our time there was watching a Sharp-shinned Hawk chase a flock of American Goldfinches that had been feeding on sweet gums.

From there we went to Sugar Grove Nature Center in Funks Grove, IL. Our best birds were the numerous Eurasian Tree Sparrows feeding with House Sparrows at the feeders. After we all parted ways, I had to return to Moraine View to pick up something I had accidentally left there. I arrived at dusk and turned right where the road Ts toward the entrance of the park. Not far down the road, I flushed a Barred Owl, which landed a short distance ahead in one of the trees to my left. As I released my foot from the brake, it flew again a little further down and a little deeper in the woods, but I got good looks when it flew into the light from my head lights and I was able to look at it where it landed. This was my third owl of the week, and it was the best looks I have ever had of a Barred Owl and the only looks I have had of a Barred Owl's face.