I have observed 13 Snowy Owls in the past 3 days, and 21 different individuals so far this winter. I keep wondering if I will ever again experience such a remarkable irruption for this species in my lifetime. I have observed a trend in my sightings - most occurred between 1 and 4:30 p.m. It appears that they mostly roost through the morning hours, but actively hunt in the afternoons. The few individuals I have found in the a.m. hours were roosting with closed eyes. I have observed the owls perched on silos, telephone poles, metal and wooden fence posts, trees, the ground, and bales of hay.
1/3/14 Clinton Co. Sean O'Brien and I found two Snowy Owls in the location where Paul Osenbaugh has posted them in Plattsburgh. 1/4/14 Upper St. Lawrence Valley locations (Canton-Hammond-Clayton-Cape Vincent to Chaumont; southern St. Lawrence Co. to northern Jefferson Co.) Some of the species found: Snow Goose - several on the Oswegatchie River Amer. Black Duck - ~30 on the Oswegatchie River Bald Eagle - 2 adult flying together at the Rt 68 and Rt 11 intersection in Canton Red-tailed Hawk - 3 Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (photo of one on my Facebook page below) Snowy Owl - 6 (1 in southern St. Lawrence Co. in Morristown and 5 in northern Jefferson Co. from Cape Vincent to Chaumont) (Several photos on my Facebook page below) Four of the six were in groups of 2, with one pair interacting in the air. One of the Snowy Owls was observed chasing a light morph Rough-legged Hawk. Horned Lark - many Snow Bunting - hundreds on Scotch Bush Road near the Rt 6 intersection in Morristown Point Peninsula was spectacular and wild. The wind was so ferocious that I could hardly stand up. I posted a photo to my Facebook page of the sunset over Lake Ontario from Pt. Peninsula (in contrast to one I took at the same location nearly a month ago). 1/5/14 Westport (Essex Co.) and Addison, VT Mario Davalos, a remarkable artist/photographer from the Dominican Republic, and I birded the Westport area and then visited Addison, Vt. We found open water at Westport on Lake Champlain. The sky was filled with gulls. A solo Common Loon was on the lake in addition to other waterfowl. An upside down Ring-billed Gull on the ice appeared to be dead, but then began moving its head. There was a great deal of blood on the ice and it was an awful sight. There was a young Bald Eagle flying over the water and a Red-tailed Hawk vocalized several times nearby. I am not sure what attached the gull, but it was awful to see it suffering. Here are some of the other sightings: Red-tailed Hawk - many Rough-legged Hawk - many (3/4 were light morph) Snowy Owl - 5 in locations posted to the VT list serve (one photo on my Facebook page below) Horned Lark - many Eastern Bluebird - many! Snow Bunting - many We also observed a howling Coyote in the middle of the day. It was nice to run into Nina Schoch and Audrey Hyson in Vermont! There were many birders in Addison and I was able to offer scope views of Snowy Owls to young children (& adolescents) out with their parents to see the owls. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY (315) 244-7127 cell (518) 624-5528 home http://www.adirondackavianexpeditions.com/ http://www.facebook.com/AdirondackAvian -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
