snowy owl

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Seeing, Hearing, Not Seeing, Not Knowing, Knowing

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Following my own advice to get out, even if it's only around the neighborhood, I've had some great sights, sounds, and a couple of mysteries.

Philly and Peggy, our two faithful and beloved dogs, led me to one mystery. Two or three times a week, they must go outside at about 3 AM. Several times in the last month, as I've waited for them on the back porch, I've heard a whirring sound that occurs at intervals of several seconds. It does not sound mechanical but has a birdish quality. Not at all the hoot of an owl, which I heard earlier in the fall. I've never heard it at any other time in the day or evening.

Photo by Karen FCC

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Better than a Thanksgiving turkey?

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Exciting news: Snowy owls have begun to arrive in Wisconsin, with the first landing in Dane County! Lots of you may know this news already but the DNR link might be worth checking out because it reviews some basic information about snowy owls and some precautions to take in finding and watching them. Enjoy!

Photo by Ryan Brady

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A snowy owl who almost made it back home

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In January 2018, a snowy owl near Arlington, WI was outfitted with a GPS transmitter and tracked by hundreds of scientists and community members. In April, he was found dead in Benton County, Minnesota. The story of “Arlington”, the snowy owl, is one of science, conservation, and community.

Snowy owls hatch and spend their summers and fall in the tundra of northern Canada, and migrate south in early winter, especially in years of high lemming populations when many young are raised. One particular snowy owl was six months old in December when he stopped to spend the winter near Madison Audubon Society’s Goose Pond Sanctuary and the UW Arlington Agricultural Research Station, 17 miles north of Madison. He was one of thousands of snowy owls that flooded into the northern United States and southern Canada during this snowy owl “irruption year”.

Photo by David Rihn