Snowy Owls Are Overwintering in Ohio, Beyond Canadian Border Ranges

Summary: Snowy owls in Canada are minus a snowy owl arriving Nov. 24, 2019, in northeast Ohio, not in winter ranges in international border provinces and states.

Ohio's first snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) of winter 2019-2020 was photographed Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, by Mimi Linda Hoffmaster at Mosquito Creek Lake in Mosquito Lake State Park, near Mecca, Trumbull County, northeastern Ohio: Cleveland Metroparks @Cleveland Metroparks, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2019

One of North America's snowy owls arrived in northeastern Ohio Nov. 24, 2019, even though snowy owl winter ranges are in provinces and states along the Canadian border with the United States.

One of four migrant flyways from Canada, through the United States, into Mexico and vice versa brought the snowy owl to Mecca Township, Trumbull County, Ohio. The Pacific flyway conducts migratory birds from Alaska, through Yukon and British Columbia, into 11 westernmost United States' and six westernmost Mexican states and vice versa. The Central flyway directs them from Northwest Territories, through Edmonton and Saskatchewan, into 10 United States' states, throughout Mexico, apart the extreme northwest, and vice versa.

Mississippi versus Atlantic flyways entail Nunavut, Manitoba, Ontario, 14 states from Minnesota through Michigan, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi versus five easternmost provinces, New York eastward and southward.

The months from mid-May through early September furnish the nine-year life cycles of snowy owls with breeding seasons in northern Eurasian and North American tundra habitats.

Physically and sexually mature female snowy owls gestate one three- or four- to 10- or 12- or even 15-egg clutch, not necessarily in every breeding season. They have short elliptical or subelliptical smooth, somewhat glossy, white, 2.24- by 1.77-inch (57- by 45-millimeter) eggs in hollow scrapes on boulders, crag ledges or hummocks. Fell- (from Old Norse fjall, "mountain [above tree lines"), island- or tundra- (from Kildin Sami тӯнтар, "[treeless] uplands") installed nests, sometimes feather-lined, sometimes moss-lined, incubate broods.

Physically and sexually mature male snowy owls journey back and forth with 4- to 5-inch- (10.16- to 12.7-centimeter) long lemmings (Diocrostonyx, Lemmus) for their brooding mates.

Snowy owls, known scientifically as Bubo scandiacus (from Latin būbō, "owl" and scandiacus, "Scandinavian"), keep their eggs incubated for 32 to 37 dates before staggered hatching.

Snowy owl egg-hatching stages last 3 or 6 to 15 or 30 days for 3 to 15 eggs, with one- to two-day intervals between each egg. Altricially (from Latin altrīx, "nourisher") helpless snowy owl hatchlings manifest short, soft, thick white down everywhere, even to the claws, apart each leg joint's bare-patched back. Black-gray-billed six- to 10-day-olds, three- to four-week-olds and eight- to nine-week-olds respectively manifest brown-gray, down-like, loose feathering; move from birth nests; and master slow, steady flight. They nestle into nearby niches where they navigate with deep, strong beats, flaps and glides but need daily parent-hunted, parent-presented small bird, fish and mammal prey.

Snowy owls, observed by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), offer round-headed, yellow-eyed, white-faced, dark-billed, white-breasted, white-legged, dark-clawed juveniles with dusky-barred undersides and brown-gray-flecked uppersides.

Mature snowy owls present 3.53- to 6.39-pound (1.6- to 2.9-kilogram), 20.08- to 26.77-inch (51- to 68-centimeter) head-body lengths and 4.26- to 5.25-foot (1.3- to 1.6-meter) wingspans.

Snowy owls queue up variable barring, apart some all-white males, on underpart and wing feathers and, for vocalizations, double hoots, hisses, rattles, serialized hoots and whistles. They range year-round on arctic coastal Alaska through Nunavut; summers on arctic islands; and winters on coastal Alaska and Canada and international border provinces and states. The International Union for Conservation of Nature vulnerability status suggests climate change, habitat loss, prey shortage and wintering southward into Ohio and coastally through New Jersey.

Northernmost stresses take the Strigidae (from Greek στρίξ, "owl" and -ειδής, "-like") owl family member on transient treks through coastal airfields, dunes and marshes and Ohio.

Ohio's first snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) of winter 2019-2020 was spotted at Mosquito Creek Lake, formerly known as Mosquito Creek Reservoir, near Mecca, Trumbull County, northeastern Ohio; Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1991, upstream view to the north of Mosquito Creek Lake, with Ohio State Route 88 bridge in far distance (upper center); Mecca is at bridge's east end: Margaret Luzier, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Ohio's first snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) of winter 2019-2020 was photographed Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, by Mimi Linda Hoffmaster at Mosquito Creek Lake in Mosquito Lake State Park, near Mecca, Trumbull County, northeastern Ohio: Cleveland Metroparks @Cleveland Metroparks, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2019, @ https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandMetroparks/posts/a.55216058602/10156785061003603/

Ohio's first snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) of winter 2019-2020 was spotted at Mosquito Creek Lake, formerly known as Mosquito Creek Reservoir, near Mecca, Trumbull County, northeastern Ohio; Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1991, upstream view to the north of Mosquito Creek Lake, with Ohio State Route 88 bridge in far distance (upper center); Mecca is at bridge's east end: Margaret Luzier, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosquito_Creek_Reservoir_Ohio_northward.jpg

For further information:

Backhouse, Frances. Owls of North America. Buffalo NY: Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc.; Richmond Hill, Canada: Firefly Books Ltd., 2008.

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2005. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton Field Guides Book 35. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Cleveland Metroparks @Cleveland Metroparks. 25 November 2019. "Raptors are out in force right now, from bald eagles staging along the Cuyahoga River near CanalWay Visitor Center to barred owls in Rocky River Reservation, peregrine falcons hunting the shoreline at Edgewater Park, to great horned owls in North Chagrin Reservation. Now is the time to seek owls, hawks, eagles and falcons as they patrol the lakefront, fields and forests of Cleveland Metroparks Reservations. This snowy owl, found yesterday at Mosquito Lake in Mecca, is the first 'snowy' to be found this winter in Ohio. We're on high alert for Cleveland's first snowy owl of Winter 2019/2020 and will update this page if one (or more) are found! Photo by Mimi Linda Hoffmaster." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/ClevelandMetroparks/photos/a.55216058602/10156785061003603/

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Lewis, Deane. 3 December 2017. "Snowy Owl ~ Bubo scandiacus (Nyctea scandiaca)." The Owl Pages > Owl Species > Genus: Bubo.
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Linnaei, Caroli (Carl Linnaeus). 1758. "Bubo scandiaca 2." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 92. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
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Available @ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl

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thetcanada. 27 November 2019. "Ohio First Snowy Owl, The Chances Are Pretty Good." Thet Canada > News.
Available @ https://www.thetcanada.com/2019/11/27/ohio-first-snowy-owl-the-chances-are-pretty-good/

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. 2016. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing.