(UPDATE): Feb. 2, 2022 – Project SNOWstorm reports that a snowy owl has been spotted at Union Station in Washington D.C. on a regular basis. It’s given residents and birders many oppportunities to photograph as it perches on the Columbus fountain sculpture in front of the train station or at the top of a flagpole. The owl is probably a juvenile female. The snowy may be finding a lot of food there, which explains why it’s been seen there often.

For more information, visit Project SNOWstorm through the link to the right.

The following article is from December 2020.

Dec. 23, 2020 – Next to spotting reindeer this week, spotting a beautiful Snowy Owl is the next best thing. There is good news for people living in northern Iowa and South Dakota. Project SNOWstorm is following two owls it tagged and named previously – Stella in northeastern South Dakota and Columbia in northern Iowa around Spirit Lake.

Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus) are large owls, weighing about four pounds, with a unique habitat – frozen tundra. Their home is the Arctic tundra, large, open and frozen land without trees. This time of year a few reindeer may be spotted getting ready in the Arctic for a long journey!

The owls often migrate south to Canada and the northern portion of the United States in winter, most likely to find food. They prefer lemmings but will eat other mammals, such as mice. They hunt food from high perches where they can see and hear prey. Their heads turn 270 degrees.

With 24 hours of daylight in the Arctic, the owls hunt lemmings all day. Because they hunt during the day, the owls are diurnal instead of nocturnal (hunt at night only) as most owls are. According to information from All About Birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one Snowy Owl can eat more than 1,600 lemmings in one year.

Hedwig, Harry Potter’s Snowy Owl, brought the bird of prey new attention and fame. And then in 2014, an “irruption” of Snowy Owls occurred in the United States. In February 2014, more than 2,500 Snowy Owls were spotted in 25 states and seven Canadian provinces.

The exact cause of “irruptive” years is still being studied but one theory is that when large number of owls are born in the Arctic, there is not enough food so large numbers of juvenile owls migrate south during the winter to look for food.

Once a Snowy Owl is spotted, a study of its feathers can help determine its gender and age. Pure white owls are almost always adult males. Adult females will almost always have some barring (dark brown streaks through their feathers). Owls with heavy barring are often juveniles.

When Snowy Owls are injured, people rescue them and treat their injuries. Once healed, the owls are released back into the wild.

Redwood Learn attended a release of a juvenile male in 2018 in northwestern Ohio that was cared for by Back to the Wild, a nonprofit group. See video above.

Project Snowstorm updates on Stella and Columbia

Stella
According to an update yesterday by Scott Weidensaul, Project SNOWstorm director, Stella checked in on Dec. 18 near Britton, South Dakota close to the North Dakota border. She flew over the northern prong of the Coteau des Prairies. Scott said it’s a geologic feature that is a shallow, triangular plateau that is dotted by hundreds of natural small lakes and ponds. The plateau is a result of the ice age when a glacier flowing south cut through the area. Stella’s tracking device had her at the Britton Municipal Airport, a very small airport with one runway.

Snowy Owls have an affinity for airports, which puts them at great danger of being injured. As Scott described Stella’s location, he noted the owl chose an airport even though the owl had miles of wide open frozen land in South Dakota. “Owls and airports. Never a dull moment,” Scott said in his Dec. 22, 2020 blog post.

Columbia
The following is Scott’s comments about Columbia:

“Columbia, meanwhile, has become an honorary Hawkeye, having moved from southwestern Minnesota across the border south into Iowa –  the first Project SNOWstorm owl to visit the Hawkeye State. We had one near miss previously – in March 2015, another Wisconsin-tagged owl named Goose Pond came within a few miles of the Mississippi River (and the Iowa state line) before disappearing. We never learned what happened, whether he simply had a transmitter failure or, more darkly, a mishap like a vehicle collision that disabled the unit.
“We’re pleased to say that Columbia seems to be doing fine, though. At last report she was in Dickinson County just southeast of the towns of Spirit Lake and Milford, and the network of natural lakes known as the Iowa Great Lakes, including 5,700-acre (2,300 ha) Spirit Lake. Over the past week, Columbia’s been hunting farmland on the Dickinson/Clay county line. No airports in sight.”

Visitors from the Arctic, whether reindeer or Snowy Owls, are bringing a little joy to anyone lucky enough to spot one!

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is the preferred habitat for Snowy Owls?

2. Where is that habitat found?

3. What is their preferred food?

4. What senses do Snowy Owls use to hunt for food?

INQUIRY QUESTIONS

1. What is one theory about why some Snowy Owls migrate south in the winter to Canada and northern parts of the United States?

2. If a pure white Snowy Owl is spotted, what can you conclude about its age and gender?

3. How does Project SNOWstorm protect Snowy Owls?

4. What is the difference between diurnal and nocturnal animals?

5. If an owl can turn its head completely around, how many degrees would it be able to turn?