What town are you near? My wife would love to see one, I've only ever saw one that I remember here in South haven.

Every year we end up with our share of them here in ND too. I have times I will see more than one between the house and town, 6 miles. It seems like there is more than there was 20 years ago.

I see a few snowy owls near here most Winters. I think they are beautiful. There's one section of Ohio State Route 38, just above London, Ohio, where there will often be several snowy owls for a week or so, each Winter. They sit on some telephone poles along the road, within sight of each other.

Keith

we get a few around here every year most die , starvation, is what they say [dnr]

I have a friend in Marquette that claims they find them face planted on the Superior shoreline. They figure after flying over the lake they collapsed on land from exhaustion. Wonder how many don’t make land and get swallowed up by the lake?

Here in Michigan's thumb, I usually see maybe a half dozen or so. Haven't seen one yet this season, but I haven't been out much.
They typically perch on utility poles, barn roofs,or on the ground. I have never seen one in a tree.

I remember an owl bander who did a little paper search in the HBC records to where they sent those traps that were set to catch owls on poles. Then he sent letters to the managers of some of those post to post a reward for the traps to be turned in. He then paid the postage back to him. Wonder how many of those traps ended up in some personal trap collections in the USA.?

it was a two edge sword his efforts
he got traps back
but it re-kindled a old tradition in some of the communities

I saw one 3 days ago. I’m in North Missouri. Heard about another one. Same county but several miles away. Thinking it’s a different one.
I’d guess about 1 year in 5 they make it this far south.

They show up here about now every winter, they seem to key on the ducks that overwinter on the prairie.

We get good numbers some winters here, here they mostly hunt pheasants in the winter.

We even see a few on NC Hatteras Island beaches in late winter. Colder weather might push some there later in the season.

Sounds like they may have had a good breeding year--a population explosion:


Irruptive range
Large winter irruptions at temperate latitudes are thought to be due to good breeding conditions resulting in more juvenile migrants.[6] These result in irruptions occurring further south than the typical snowy owl range in some years.[95] They have been reported, as well as in all northerly states in the contiguous states,[96] as far south as the Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, nearly all the Gulf Coast of the United States, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Utah, California and even Hawaii.[5][10][97] In January 2009, a snowy owl appeared in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the first reported sighting in the state since 1987.[98] Also notable is the mass southern migration in the winter of 2011/2012, when thousands of snowy owls were spotted in various locations across the United States.[99] This was then followed by an even larger mass southern migration in 2013/2014 with the first snowy owls seen in Florida for decades.[100][101] The nature of irruptions is less well-documented in Eurasia, in part due to the paucity of this owl in the European side, but accidental occurrence, presumably during irruptions, has been described in the Mediterranean area, France, Crimea, the Caspian part of Iran, Kazakhstan, northern Pakistan, northwestern India, Korea and Japan.[5][6][102] Stragglers may too turn up as far south as the Azores and Bermuda.[4]

Too bad they dont eat Redtails.

Same years the Marten were on the move.

Somebody has to say it. Ti's on account of global warming don't you know.

Don't know how long ago that was.The guy here that trapped and banded the owls didn't use foot traps on poles.He used live traps,,almost like a miniture turkey net trap.He used live pigeons for bait,,,and actualy waited in a short distance from the trap,,and set it off by hand when an owl went for the pigeon.

BB Did ya see any coyotes?

I am sure its just a natural migration that's been going on forever. The voles their main food source is now living under the snow, so they migrate south just like the geese do when they run out of food.

Folks here eat them on occasion. Like Muskrat we dont have many local here. Most on the North slope I imagine.

I remember seeing snowy owls, during the Winter, when I was a kid in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the early seventies.

Keith

There was a trap made especially to go on poles around the turn of the century maybe Cohunt would know. His searches were in the 1960-70 when he worked security for HBC