Snowy Owls Early Migration News

[Booswalia]

Those who are seeing Snowy Owls may be interested in the following article from the Chronicle Herald. They seem to be struggling to find food.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Science/9009803.html

[pttenn]

That's sad...
Karen

[Booswalia]

I agree, Karen. It's very sad.

[doable]

Interesting, thanks for the link, we do have an influx but don't believe any are dying in Nova Scotia.

[Booswalia]

I think it must be very difficult to tell when a bird is starving. You can't tell by just looking at them because their feathers cover any meat (or lack there of) on their body. I hope they are finding enough food here in the maritimes, but with the numbers showing up...

[Duane N]

There was a local news story where someone found a Snowy Owl here in Norfolk, Virginia in their yard. It had been hit by a car and is going to be taken to a rehabber in NJ.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/snowy-owl-arctic-pays-virginia-visit

I didn't know they would come this far South. :(

[canonloader]

Well, if one comes to my yard, he will eat good. I wonder if they like baloney? :)

[WingsofFury]

Interesting, thanks for the link, we do have an influx but don't believe any are dying in Nova Scotia.

I think it must be very difficult to tell when a bird is starving. You can't tell by just looking at them because their feathers cover any meat (or lack there of) on their body. I hope they are finding enough food here in the maritimes, but with the numbers showing up...

Well, if one comes to my yard, he will eat good. I wonder if they like baloney? :)

It's next to impossible to tell if a bird is emaciated visually. The only way to ascertain their condition is to handle a bird and actually feel the way through the feathers to the skin and bone structure. However, when a bird is starving, you will often see them remaining in one position for extended periods of time. Owls make this harder, given that ones like Snowies are more active during the night hours than they are during the day.

When it comes to the birds being found in the Maritimes, you'll find that they are being driven south by the amount of snow that lies in places due north such as northern Quebec and Ellesmere Island. This area, from what I've been told, didn't experience the leming/mouse crash as badly as northern Ontario and Nunavut, which is where most Snowies are situated. This includes the birds that are showing up over in Minnesota and Wisconsin, amongst other US border states.

Food wise the birds on the ocean coasts are in a favourable situation because snowies also feed on birds, particularly ducks and other shore birds which inhabit the coastal areas year round. The ones inland are searching for mice and when you have an owl as big as a snowie competing with every other raptor around for mice/voles it makes it hard on them, especially after flying the long distance from the north.

When you consider large snowfalls that occur as well, snowies and all other owls find it hard to hunt and as a result aren't as successful. Up here we had a couple of long eared owls that died of starvation simply because the snow was so deep they couldn't capture any prey.

While these events may be sad, they are natures way of dealing with itself and if it weren't to happen, you'd see an explosion in the number of snowies which would then adversely affect other bird populations of the north, including gyrfalcons and peregrines.

[canonloader]

While these events may be sad, they are natures way of dealing with itself

I will have to disagree on this. Yes, to the point it is natures way, but no to the point it is natural. Not when man has paved over, plowed under and built up half of all the habitat these birds are entitled to. Their numbers are down because of us, down so far, that disasters such as this could be the tipping point to extinction. That being said, if we can help them out, by feeding or rescue, then I say, we should do it, not mouth platitudes from a bygone era that no longer apply. If the chance comes to me where I can walk up to a starving owl, there is no way I am going to turn my back on it. :)

[WingsofFury]

I will have to disagree on this. Yes, to the point it is natures way, but no to the point it is natural. Not when man has paved over, plowed under and built up half of all the habitat these birds are entitled to. Their numbers are down because of us, down so far, that disasters such as this could be the tipping point to extinction. That being said, if we can help them out, by feeding or rescue, then I say, we should do it, not mouth platitudes from a bygone era that no longer apply. If the chance comes to me where I can walk up to a starving owl, there is no way I am going to turn my back on it. :)

Wow, time for a debate. :)

Man hasn't paved over, plowed under, or built up half of all the habitat that these birds live in. North America has a total land area of 24,709,000 km², and you'd be hard pressed to find out that we've taken up anywhere near close to 1/4 of that, yet alone a 1/2 of it. With the areas that Snowies occupy, the percentage of developed land is even less.

Their numbers aren't down because of us at all. You actually make it sound like Snowy Owls are endangered, and they are far from it. The reason you may perceive them to be endangered is because you only see them during the winter season when they migrate down from their summer nesting areas on the northern tundras of Canada.

With regards to the leming and vole population crash up north, there are other factors that are involved which I don't think you've considered. The amount of grains/seeds/grass that the animals feed on was directly impacted by the amount of snow that fell last year. With too little moisture, the plants die. With too much moisture, the plants die. Plants die, lemings and mice can't eat, so they can't reproduce as well, and then there's less food for those that prey on them, which includes snowies and wolves amongst other animals.

As I stated before, you can't tell by looking at an owl whether or not it is starving. There's nothing wrong with being involved in the rehabilitation of birds of prey which need the help or with those birds which are used for educational purposes...but the key is to know how to identify sick and ailing birds. That takes time, and sadly, there are few of those who choose to even put in the time to learn.

Cheers, Attila

[canonloader]

Man hasn't paved over, plowed under, or built up half of all the habitat that these birds live in. North America has a total land area of 24,709,000 km², and you'd be hard pressed to find out that we've taken up anywhere near close to 1/4 of that, yet alone a 1/2 of it.
You have got to be kidding? Maybe in Canada, but not here. It's a well known fact that from the Eastern seaboard to the great plains was all forest. All of it. There is very little of it left, if you hadn't noticed. While your weeds in Canada may have dried up, in the past, they could erupt to the South and find plenty to eat. They can't do that now. In fact, your dried up weeds are probably caused by the deforestation and paving over in the lower 48.

And if your going to ask if I think people ought to be trimmed back, the answer is yes. Way back. We should be the ones used for educational purposes. In my lifetime alone, the world population has doubled, and you may not be aware of it, but I and many of the people of my generation can feel the pressure. You will never know what it's like to have twice the room to freely move around in or all the other freedoms you have already lost forever, simply due to population pressure. This is why I can feel for those owls and others just don't get it. Our unchecked population growth is the reason for every woe on this planet right now.

[Booswalia]

http://www.sonnys.ca/2008/applause.gif

I have to agree with Mitch. The balance is being disrupted by over population.

[canonloader]

I don't mean to give offense, but this is something I feel pretty strongly about and I have done my homework on this subject. If you look at this page (http://forestry.about.com/library/bl_us_forest_acre_trend.htm), it shows the deforestation from 1630 to 2002. As if they really knew how much forest there was in 1630, but it's pretty well documented by early explorers journals that it was solid forest from the Atlantic to the Dakotas and down to Texas.

The top two lines on this chart are for the Northern and Southern parts of the US, and I assume it means the area I mentioned above, since they have separate lines for the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. As you can see, in the North Eastern section of the US. from the Dakotas to to Maine, which I also equate to be the Southern area of the Snowy Owl, it has been at least half deforested, and at one point more than half, and now a little less, but still about half what it was.

That might not be so bad, but, that deforested land is not just fields, it's cities and roads now, and crops grown with poisons and streams full of runoff oil and other petroleum crud. While the Snowy Owl population may not be endangered, how would we know? We have archaeological data about the forests in 1630, but I don't think anyone was counting owls back then. Certainly it has declined, which in the big wheel of things is probably why the lemmings and other rodents crash more often. It's a vicious cycle that can be directly related to the over population of man. If we were deer, they would have a hunt to cull our numbers. I think Mom Nature is about to do it for us.

[WingsofFury]

Mitch, while I can appreciate what you're saying, I believe that what you are speaking about has no direct relevance on the Snowy Owl population for a myriad of reasons.

1) Snowy Owls aren't effected by deforestation as they reside on Tundra Plains.

2) Apart from Alaska, Snowy Owls don't nest in any other US state which would be effected by deforestation.

3) Your reference to weeds is confusing - most grasses and other flora considered feed are far from weeds. As a matter of fact, the Arctic Willow is the main source of sustenance for lemings amongst other shoots and grasses.

4) The leming crashes that you refer to aren't as a result of the over population of man...if that were the case, then there would be a continual crash every single year as opposed to one every 4 or 5 years as we see noted in biology reports. The leming crashes simply have to do with the availability of food, which is directly tied to how severe the winter is and how short the growing season is in the north.

The snow that we're all experiencing now, by the way, won't help matters either. While owls like long eared's and snowies can hear prey under 4 feet of snow, they can't capture it because of the snow depth. This leads to less success hunting which will result in further starvation. Once again, this isn't due to mans overpopulation, but is a direct natural factor which would have occurred whether we were here or not.

[canonloader]

Everything is affected by mass deforestation. I realize the Owls want open fields, but as I said, if the climate is changed by deforestation, and it is, then the weeds your owl food depends on to hide in, nest in and find food in is going to suffer, therefore causing the owl population to suffer and decline.

[gymell]

If we were deer, they would have a hunt to cull our numbers. I think Mom Nature is about to do it for us.

I absolutely agree. I know this is going a bit OT, but basically any problem I can think of in the world has some relationship to human overpopulation. Nature will do something about it at some point. Either through a plague, a drastic climate change caused by a volcanic eruption or asteroid impact, ice age, etc. We've fended off many natural population reductions for a while, but at some point, nature will win.

[canonloader]

I could understand the advantages of large families in the old days of agriculture and expansion. That was good then, it isn't good now. We have settled the earth and advanced scientifically to the point where we can go to the moon and back. Now it is time to use science to develop some serious birth control and the worldwide media to teach it's advantages. it's not like we have to kill anyone, just stop having so many kids. The advantages will start on the first day we realize this and start practicing it, and will get better, exponentially and painlessly. ;)