Spectacular Snowy Owls are on the move!

The owls are irrupting well south of their usual winter range in Canada, with reports as far south as Kansas. To read more about the phenomenon in eBird, select this link. If you don’t see a Snowy Owl in your birding ventures, you can still appreciate how truly magnificent these birds are by watching this video from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Source: Bird Studies Canada

How did I possibly survive without Twitter? Yes, some days are more interesting on there than others, but every once in a while you get notice of some absolutely SPECTACULAR blog posts.

Today I was introduced to The Spruce Blog, and this unbelievably astonishing collection of Great Grey owl photos, including juveniles. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity, and luckily for us, Lev Frid captured it all.

If you’re a fan of Canada’s largest owl – and who isn’t – you must view some of the most amazing owl pictures you’ll ever see on Days With Great Greys!

And thank you to Gregg @WorkCabin for sharing.:-)

Click here to view the embedded video.

A team of field researchers, including Calgary Zoo Director Dr. Jake Veasey, released 84 captive-bred burrowing owls into artificial burrows in the Kamloops/Merritt region of British Columbia in mid-April.

The Calgary Zoo joined the burrowing owl project in 2004, and the research team provides assistance assessing owls, pairing, determining release locations and in the actual release of the owls to the wild.

“Each bird is assessed, paired and assigned to a release burrow to maximize genetic diversity,” explains Dr. Veasey. “As burrowing owls face increased challenges, the research opportunities and lessons learned from participating in this recovery project may be extremely valuable in securing a future for burrowing owls in other areas of Canada and the U.S.”

The recovery program relies on artificial burrows installed by volunteers and partner organizations because the natural burrowing animals that would have provided hand-me-down burrows for the owls have largely disappeared from the region. To date, over 400 artificial burrows have been installed in the BC release area.

Veasey continues, “Soft release cages are installed over each burrow prior to the release to ease the transition for the owls and then remain in place for about two weeks during which time the owls receive supplemental feeding.”

The release owls are captive-bred at two facilities operated by project partners – BC Wildlife Park and the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of British Columbia. The released owls are monitored by the Society through the summer.

Background

Burrowing owls are considered endangered across Canada. Where these tiny owls once occupied most of the grasslands of western Canada, they currently inhabit only 36 percent of their historical range. Over the past thirty years, the national population has declined from an estimated 3,000 pairs to fewer than 800 pairs.

Burrowing owls disappeared from British Columbia in the early 1980s and reintroduction efforts in the Kamloops/Merritt region began in early 1990. Since 1992, 1164 captive-bred burrowing owls have been released. While research suggests that burrowing owls don’t necessarily return to their birth place or previous year’s nest site each year, the return rate in this area is believed to be consistent with other regions in Canada. Burrowing owls from the prairies migrate to Texas and Mexico for the winter; owls banded in BC have been sighted in California, Oregon and Washington.

Burrowing owls depend on other ground-dwelling animals such as badgers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs and marmots to dig burrows that the owls later use for nesting, shelter and predator escape. Owl reproductive success and survival also depend on ample populations of prey such as mice, voles, grasshoppers and beetles. While no single factor has been identified as causing the decline of burrowing owl populations in Canada, the cumulative impacts of several factors are thought to be responsible. Potential threats include loss and fragmentation of grassland habitat, decreased prey availability, increased predation, inclement weather, vehicle mortalities, environmental contaminants and loss of other burrowing animals in the owls’ range.

More information on burrowing owl reintroductions in BC

Photo c Burrowing Owl Soc of BC

You can help the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC

“Our program is growing each year. So are our costs. With more owls we need more food and care for the birds, both for our breeding centres and in the field.

Burrowing Owls do best when they are fed mice. You might be surprised to know that each owl can eat 2 mice a day. These cost just under $1.00 each. This year we’ll have over 70 owls to feed at our Port Kells facility alone. You can see that the food budget for a year is over $50,000!

With more owls raised and released each year our program’s success is growing. Each year more owls return to the breeding ground from migration. Our goal is that one day there will be enough burrowing owls returning to raise their families in BC grasslands, that they will no longer need our help.

But for now we need your help to make this happen. Our breeding facility is operated entirely by volunteers. A donation to the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society will provide for food, shelter and veterinary care for our little charges. Your contribution will also support the fieldwork for the owls (and their young) once they are released.

The Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC is a registered charity. All Canadian donations will receive a tax receipt. “

Download the Burrowing Owl Brochure and help the owls today!

It’s so nice to have birding friends.

Last Saturday, my husband and I were sitting at home wondering which direction to go looking for birds. Our March weather is extremely fickle, so we were gauging our chances of heading out to the mountains when the phone rang.

A friend had just made a wonderful sighting at the local bird sanctuary about ten minutes from our house, and was kind enough to pass it on. We quickly poured our tea into go cups, grabbed camera and bins, and headed out the door.

Can you see what we were so excited about?

Look closer…

How about now?

That was one well hidden saw-whet owl. I asked Bob how on earth he had ever seen it, and he said the black-capped chickadees, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches had shown him there was something in the tree. He had to make more than a few circles around the spruce to find it, but I’m very glad he did!

I am beginning to think my yard is emitting some kind of weird force field, resulting in some very strange bird encounters – daily owl visits, eastern birds, hundreds of waxwings… And that’s just the last few weeks.

On one supremely frigid day last week, I noticed one of my cats in point position on his window ledge. Naturally, I had to get up and see what he was looking at.

Wowza! No wonder he was entranced.

I counted 15 black-billed magpies in this tree, which is a new yard record. A few years ago when I reported 8 magpies on the feeder watch checklist, I received the comment that was an unusually high number and was I sure of the total. They would be doing cartwheels over this.

I don’t really have any idea what the attraction was. Granted, I had put out a couple cups of dry dogfood on the deck earlier, but there was still some left when the sun went down.

In another of those corvid mysteries, the magpies congregated in this tree for a couple of hours. They sat quietly, not even talking to each other, and then slowly, individually or in pairs, drifted away.

And Buster slept through the whole thing.

Those noisy squirrels are back again.

What about my nap?

Now they're in the bird feeder...

Under my tree...

Up the tree...

Now they're down again...

Over in that tree...

Is that a raven?

Here they come again...

Up the tree again...

Now they're on the cat run...

Running along the fence...

Right underneath me...

I can't watch anymore - my neck hurts.

I rarely apply human emotions to wildlife, but I simply couldn’t resist for this sequence. Buster spent a half an hour watching the squirrel activity, and really gave the famous owl-swivel neck a workout!

I was making pumpkin walnut muffins yesterday when I looked out the window and discovered I had more than the usual number of big corvids out there. Four ravens and five black-billed magpies, to be exact, were quietly (?) perched on one of my spruce trees.

Grabbing my camera and bins, I quickly went out onto the back deck. All the corvids flew away, but by then I had seen why they were there.

Hmm, well yes it is an owl, but what kind of owl?

Back into the house for my snow boots, and I tramped through the snow to get closer. Oh – that kind of owl!

Birding the prairies in winter can be a tricky thing. You have to wait until the weather conditions are right – no ice on the roads, no blowing snow, no minus 30C temperatures – and you have to head out in the dark. The chance of a snowy owl sighting is one of the few things that will pry me from my nice, comfy bed at 6:00 am in the winter.

A birdwatching friend (bloody morning person) and I headed out last week to look for snowys. We’ve done this prairie winter drive before, and came home with a great number of sightings, including 11 snowy owls. Obviously, we used up a generous portion of our birding luck that time.

Much of this trip, it was like we were the only people left after the apocalypse. Mile after mile of snow-covered fields, no traffic and more importantly, no birds. We did manage to see 3 snowy owls, but they were few and far between. Not only were they hard to find, they were distinctly uncooperative on the picture front. Too far away for my camera, flying as soon as we stopped, whipping their heads back and forth so I ended up with fuzzy pictures…

We also saw a couple of golden eagles and a prairie falcon, who all flew the instant we slowed down and I picked up my camera.  Black-billed magpies and ravens were very numerous, and we spotted a flock of bohemian waxwings way out there in the prairie, which was a surprise. Snow buntings were everywhere, but I didn’t even attempt to get a picture of these hyperactive little birds.

The lone coyote we saw in our day-long drive took off at a fast lope as soon as he saw us. You couldn’t blame the poor canid – he probably associates any slow-moving vehicle with a gunshot. Small herds of mule deer were scattered all over the place, although we did see one big group of nearly 40 animals.

As any birder knows, some days the birding gods are with you, and some days they’re not. Or maybe we’ve just been spoiled with our past prairie drives.

Still, I figure even a fuzzy snowy owl picture is better than none!

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At one time, the Burrowing Owl was common in the four western provinces. Now, it is one of the most endangered birds in Canada. The population decline began in the 1980s and accelerated during the 1990s to an average rate of 22% a year. In 1977, more than 2,000 breeding pairs of Burrowing Owls lived in Canada; by 2000, the number had dropped to fewer than 1,000.

A small, struggling population is hanging on in British Columbia, and they winter in California and Washington.

Read more about these appealing little owls, and sign the petition to help protect their California wintering habitats.