Snowy Owl
By Diane Tipton, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Statewide Information Officer
Snowy owls are putting on a real show for Montanans this winter. These stunning white owls nest and breed in the Arctic where they mainly eat lemmings, a small, mouse-like mammal. Their winter movements, called irruptions, bring them into southern Canada about once every four years—and sometimes even as far south as the United States.
For the past three months, snowy owls have been seen frequently across northern Montana generally in open, windswept fields. Watch power line poles, rock piles or anything with a little height.
Experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y., and David Sibley, of the Sibley Guides fame, seem to agree that this year’s irruption likely relates to the boom and bust cycles of lemmings. A bountiful lemming population last summer enabled nesting snowy owls to feed and fledge more than twice the usual young. In turn, burgeoning owl numbers reduced the lemming supply going into winter. According to Sibley, lower ranking birds losing out to the competition began to deposit fat and feel a natural urge to head south for better hunting. The lucky ones will survive the journey to return to the arctic in the spring.
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