Tag Archives: MN North: Duluth

Snowy Owls Times Two!

Year 9

I had a great time watching not one, but two Snowy Owls hunt yesterday afternoon. At one point the female took exception to the male hunting near her winter territory, and chased the male out of the area. Like most owls, female Snowy Owls are larger than the males, but their feather coloration is also different. As a male approaches maturity it becomes increasingly “snowy white” and loses most of its black streaking. A male Snowy Owl that might be six years normally is “snowy white”. Learn more about Snowy Owls via the Owl Institute’s web page dedicated to Snowy Owls.

Here are my two Snowys. The first image was taken yesterday afternoon of the female. The second image was taken two days ago of the male. Note how the male (a young male which is likely is not yet of breeding age) is much more white.

Female Snowy Owl

Male Snowy Owl

Remember, if you like Snowy Owls, I give away PDF full versions of my children’s picture book, Snowy’s Search for Color. Learn more and get a copy. Printed copies will be available again in January.

InBound, OutBound and In Transit!

Year 9,

The birds are moving! For the last five days my yard on the edge of Amity Creek has been a wild place as flocks and flocks of Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins, and Goldfinches descend upon my six bird feeders. Each wave tends to be in the “hundreds of birds” … always coming from the southwest and moving off to the northeast. In addition, my yard is now filled with the songs of robins, and first of year grackles (not quite a pretty). Some of these two bird species will stay local as others move further north.

Yesterday morning I went in search of open water. Check out open water, particularly slack water in streams. These Common Mergansers yesterday were right near the boat launch at the old Interstate Bridge in the Duluth harbor. It will be a while till area lakes go ice free.

Finally the perfect evening of calm winds, clear skies and mild temperatures brought two Snowy Owls out last night in the Duluth area. These owls are a harder find right now as they are taking short trips around the region to strengthen their flight muscles for the return migration north, but there are still a few around. I suspect this bird is a young, non breeding female and not in any hurry to get north to the Arctic. The photo was taken 10 minutes before sundown, and the owl still had not moved an inch 20 minutes after sunset when I left.