ssim
28th of February 2005 (Mon), 09:27
The following appeared in the Montreal Gazette this morning.
Spotted on Ile Bizard: The Great Gray is Quebec's largest predator, with a
wingspan of 69 centimetres. (FPinfomart: Restricted, Canada.com (http://canada.com/): Restricted)
About Images
Rare visitor a hoot for local birders: Every seven years, as the northern
rodent population falls, Great Gray owls come south in search of food.
Usually they find it before reaching Montreal. Not this year - and
birdwatchers are thrilled
Montreal Gazette
Monday, February 28, 2005
Page: A8
Section: News
Page Name: Montreal
Byline: CHERYL CORNACCHIA
Source: The Gazette
Standing knee-deep in snow in a wooded bog while scanning tree branches for owls is not what most people consider fun - but for 40-year-old Paul L'Etoile, it's the chance of a lifetime.
So last week, the U.S. naval engineer drove seven hours from his home in Wakefield, R.I., to a snowy field on Ile Bizard where he got a closeup look at the Great Gray owl.
The Great Gray is a rarely seen owl that has made Montreal home this winter and created the biggest bird show to hit the city in years.
L'Etoile joined a gaggle of birders and the curious as he stood mesmerized, his eyes fixed on the magnificent owl known for their distinctive yellow eyes and saucer-disk face.
"It's really something," said
L'Etoile as he clicked away with his camera.
"I know all sorts of people who have made the pilgrimage from Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Hampshire," he said. "It's worth it."
With the Great Gray owl, the number of birds he has seen hit 400.
The Great Gray (Strix nebulosa), Quebec's largest predator with a wingspan of 69 centimetres, is native to the province's northern boreal forest and wooded bogs.
But this year, hundreds of the diurnal birds - which can rotate their heads 270 degrees - have invaded southern parts of the province, including Montreal and its surrounding area.
Every seven years or so, there's a natural decrease in the northern population of mice, rodents and voles that the owl feeds on, and the birds must travel south in search of food.
Usually they find it before reaching Montreal, said Montreal zoologist Helene Caron.
This year, for some reason, they didn't - and word has spread quickly on Internet sites devoted to ornithology, making for a buzz rarely created by birds.
The birds have invaded southern Quebec (500), central Ontario (500) and Minnesota (2,000).
"Even my friends who don't care about animals or nature are asking me about the Great Gray," said Caron, who works at the Ecomuseum in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, where the bird has been all the talk among staff and visitors.
Montreal has a resident owl population of Great Horned owls, Screech owls, Barred owls, Short-earred and Long-earred owls - and all of them beautiful in their own right, Caron said.
But these owls breed in and around Montreal and are spotted regularly in coniferous forests, wooded canyons and open fields.
The Great Gray, with its "silent flight and satellite-dish facial disk" - which enables it to hear a mouse burrowing a foot below the surface of a field - is a rare visitor, she said.
"Even I got excited when I saw one," said Caron, no stranger to birds of prey. She also works as a trainer with Falcon Environmental Services, a group that trains falcons for airport safety.
"There's certainly a buzz," said Senneville birder Betsy McFarlane, who spotted her first Great Gray this month.
The longtime birder and president of the Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds said she is having a hoot with everyone talking Great Gray, how many they have spotted, where they saw them, how healthy they looked and what they did.
"Bird sightings don't usually make their way down to the general population," McFarlane said.
But now that they have, she said, she hopes bird watchers respect the code of birding ethics as set out by the American Birding Association and give the birds space - at least 15 metres.
"If you force them to fly off, you are too close," she explained. "You have disturbed him."
They are tolerant, but that's not good.
The last time the birds made their way to Montreal in any number was in the mid-1990s and, before that, it was the early 1980s.
Pierre Bannon, another longtime birder with the society, said Montreal-area sightings this year have been reported in Hudson, Les Cedres, Ile Perrot and Ile Bizard.
They began in December, picked up in January and are now at a peak.
Curiously, the birds did not cross the St. Lawrence River, as they did in the two previous invasions, Bannon said.
Although no one can be quite certain - the birds are not being banded - it is estimated 200 of the boreal-forest owls are in the Montreal area, McFarlane said.
As well, the owls are relatively healthy, unlike many of those that have landed in Minnesota. Many of those are dying.
McFarlane said the ones here are expected to stay another couple of weeks before heading north. They breed in April.
So the rush is on.
Bob Rondeau, a retired Dorval resident who took up birding last year, said he has been amazed at the close encounters he has had with the Great Grays over the past week and a half.
"My wife doesn't recognize me," he said.
The other week, he saw three Great Grays. Last week, he decided to bring out his friend, Serge Beaudry of McMasterville, also a retired school principal, and together they spotted four. He was at it again this weekend.
Friday he trudged through neighbouring Bois de l'Ile Bizard nature park a third time - and, once again, Rondeau got lucky.
"It's such fun," he said.
ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com (ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com)
Past invasions
The Northern Hawk owl invaded southern Quebec in the winter of 2000-01, when the vole population in the boreal forest crashed. About 220 of the diurnal predatory birds were sighted in southern Quebec. They have a large rounded head, yellow eyes and a pale facial disk like an owl and an elongated body like a hawk.
Over the winter of 2001-02, the Snowy owl migrated from the tundra to southern Quebec when the lemming population became scare. In two days, 56 Snowy owls were counted in the Quebec City area. Largely diurnal, the Snowy owl has fluffy white plumage with dark barring and a white facial disk.
Spotted on Ile Bizard: The Great Gray is Quebec's largest predator, with a
wingspan of 69 centimetres. (FPinfomart: Restricted, Canada.com (http://canada.com/): Restricted)
About Images
Rare visitor a hoot for local birders: Every seven years, as the northern
rodent population falls, Great Gray owls come south in search of food.
Usually they find it before reaching Montreal. Not this year - and
birdwatchers are thrilled
Montreal Gazette
Monday, February 28, 2005
Page: A8
Section: News
Page Name: Montreal
Byline: CHERYL CORNACCHIA
Source: The Gazette
Standing knee-deep in snow in a wooded bog while scanning tree branches for owls is not what most people consider fun - but for 40-year-old Paul L'Etoile, it's the chance of a lifetime.
So last week, the U.S. naval engineer drove seven hours from his home in Wakefield, R.I., to a snowy field on Ile Bizard where he got a closeup look at the Great Gray owl.
The Great Gray is a rarely seen owl that has made Montreal home this winter and created the biggest bird show to hit the city in years.
L'Etoile joined a gaggle of birders and the curious as he stood mesmerized, his eyes fixed on the magnificent owl known for their distinctive yellow eyes and saucer-disk face.
"It's really something," said
L'Etoile as he clicked away with his camera.
"I know all sorts of people who have made the pilgrimage from Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Hampshire," he said. "It's worth it."
With the Great Gray owl, the number of birds he has seen hit 400.
The Great Gray (Strix nebulosa), Quebec's largest predator with a wingspan of 69 centimetres, is native to the province's northern boreal forest and wooded bogs.
But this year, hundreds of the diurnal birds - which can rotate their heads 270 degrees - have invaded southern parts of the province, including Montreal and its surrounding area.
Every seven years or so, there's a natural decrease in the northern population of mice, rodents and voles that the owl feeds on, and the birds must travel south in search of food.
Usually they find it before reaching Montreal, said Montreal zoologist Helene Caron.
This year, for some reason, they didn't - and word has spread quickly on Internet sites devoted to ornithology, making for a buzz rarely created by birds.
The birds have invaded southern Quebec (500), central Ontario (500) and Minnesota (2,000).
"Even my friends who don't care about animals or nature are asking me about the Great Gray," said Caron, who works at the Ecomuseum in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, where the bird has been all the talk among staff and visitors.
Montreal has a resident owl population of Great Horned owls, Screech owls, Barred owls, Short-earred and Long-earred owls - and all of them beautiful in their own right, Caron said.
But these owls breed in and around Montreal and are spotted regularly in coniferous forests, wooded canyons and open fields.
The Great Gray, with its "silent flight and satellite-dish facial disk" - which enables it to hear a mouse burrowing a foot below the surface of a field - is a rare visitor, she said.
"Even I got excited when I saw one," said Caron, no stranger to birds of prey. She also works as a trainer with Falcon Environmental Services, a group that trains falcons for airport safety.
"There's certainly a buzz," said Senneville birder Betsy McFarlane, who spotted her first Great Gray this month.
The longtime birder and president of the Quebec Society for the Protection of Birds said she is having a hoot with everyone talking Great Gray, how many they have spotted, where they saw them, how healthy they looked and what they did.
"Bird sightings don't usually make their way down to the general population," McFarlane said.
But now that they have, she said, she hopes bird watchers respect the code of birding ethics as set out by the American Birding Association and give the birds space - at least 15 metres.
"If you force them to fly off, you are too close," she explained. "You have disturbed him."
They are tolerant, but that's not good.
The last time the birds made their way to Montreal in any number was in the mid-1990s and, before that, it was the early 1980s.
Pierre Bannon, another longtime birder with the society, said Montreal-area sightings this year have been reported in Hudson, Les Cedres, Ile Perrot and Ile Bizard.
They began in December, picked up in January and are now at a peak.
Curiously, the birds did not cross the St. Lawrence River, as they did in the two previous invasions, Bannon said.
Although no one can be quite certain - the birds are not being banded - it is estimated 200 of the boreal-forest owls are in the Montreal area, McFarlane said.
As well, the owls are relatively healthy, unlike many of those that have landed in Minnesota. Many of those are dying.
McFarlane said the ones here are expected to stay another couple of weeks before heading north. They breed in April.
So the rush is on.
Bob Rondeau, a retired Dorval resident who took up birding last year, said he has been amazed at the close encounters he has had with the Great Grays over the past week and a half.
"My wife doesn't recognize me," he said.
The other week, he saw three Great Grays. Last week, he decided to bring out his friend, Serge Beaudry of McMasterville, also a retired school principal, and together they spotted four. He was at it again this weekend.
Friday he trudged through neighbouring Bois de l'Ile Bizard nature park a third time - and, once again, Rondeau got lucky.
"It's such fun," he said.
ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com (ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com)
Past invasions
The Northern Hawk owl invaded southern Quebec in the winter of 2000-01, when the vole population in the boreal forest crashed. About 220 of the diurnal predatory birds were sighted in southern Quebec. They have a large rounded head, yellow eyes and a pale facial disk like an owl and an elongated body like a hawk.
Over the winter of 2001-02, the Snowy owl migrated from the tundra to southern Quebec when the lemming population became scare. In two days, 56 Snowy owls were counted in the Quebec City area. Largely diurnal, the Snowy owl has fluffy white plumage with dark barring and a white facial disk.