[WilletBeThere]

This article on the huge numbers of Snowy Owls flying south this year was in the New York Times today. It is a good read if you have time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/us/in ... ience&_r=0

Good birding,

[keithric]

It's interesting that the article (not the first I've seen this season) seems unaware that, over the last two winters,
Snowies irrupted in many parts of western North America, too.
See this Van Sun blog from Dec. 2011
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/12/1 ... -owl-show/ and
this one out of Texas from the American Birding Association
http://blog.aba.org/2012/01/ted-eubanks-snowy-owls.html.

And here's a link back to 1927 that I find interesting, showing that many things are not so new as we think:
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/file ... -p0493.pdf
Or maybe that's a "Gross over-generalization."

"The Snowy Owl regularly migrates from its breeding range in the "Barrens" of North America
to the southern provinces, especially of middle west Canada,but at more or less regular intervals the migration extends much farther southward including an area well into the United States. The most notable of these exceptional flights which have occurred during the past fifty years took place in 1876-77, 1882-83,1889-90,1892-93, 1896-97, 1901-02, 1905-06, 1917-18 and the present one 1926-27. A few Snowy Owls have found their way into the United States nearly every year but they were not accompanied by a general migration except in the years indicated above." (Alfred O. Gross)

[wendylou]

Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing!

[WilletBeThere]

Hi Keith,

Nothing happens in the US unless it happens on the East Coast. I'm sure the abundance of Snowy articles is due to their strong presence along the Eastern seaboard and their proximity to all of the major news outlets' headquarters. I lived in Chicago and around the Midwest for years and this is the way it has always been.

Cheers,