November 29, 2001 - Northern 'snowbird' heads southThe Suffolk Times • November 29, 2001
Northern `snowbir
h
F
The snowy owl that visits us occasionally from its Arctic ortMullis --
T meet its daily food requirernvm�, IL visitor
Standing almost two feet tall, this often-speckled 5 one monthmaster mouser. o
must catch seven to 12 mice each day, or
AsouT 8 O'CLOCK ONE morning
last week I got a telephone call from
Skip Goldsmith -in Southold, who
told me he had a snowy owl down at
his marina. Well, that's enough to get
._ - _J_. -- - -:+-A T- nn time Barbara
rand , a Ong
binoculars
cameras, off in
FOCUS
ON
NATURE
by Paul
Stoutenburgh
ing this unusual
early.arriv el On
film. I say
(because snow
anu wmay area, 1 came across the per-
fect snowy owl. It was in the most
owls are usually associated with blus-
beautiful setting one could imagine. It
had settled in amongst clumps of dune
"1960 -1961— Snowy Owl protectec
by state law."
tery winds, snow and .winter's cold.
grass in the low -lying dunes that are
typical of the south end of that mag-
Snowy owls, like all owls, swallow
their small prey whole. Strong juices
When we arrived at the manna a -_
Mill Creek, Skip was there to greet us
He pointed to the dock along the
nificent island. I was so taken by this
handsome owl that I sat down on a
of the stomach digest the flesh and
discard the bones, feathers and
marina and, sure enough, there was a
snowy owl sitting on the dock, head
log and just peered at it through my
binoculars. I was seeing one of the
unused parts in the form of a pellet.
This pellet is regurgitated after 24
swiveling first in one direction and
then in another. The eyes of owls do
rare sights of the birding world.
There has always been a controver-
hours or so and it is perfectly clean
and can be picked up and examined.
not move in their sockets. To look to
the side or to follow a moving object,
sy as to why the snowy owls that live
in the Arctic tundra come south. In
It is the way scientists determine what
rodents are in an area, for all they
the bird must swivel its head. We were
told that earlier some gulls had been
certain years there are great waves of
these big white owls and in
have to do is identify the animals
harassing it so the owl was just being
other
years we can hardly find one. The
through their bones. I've often been
with people exploring a group of pines
cautious.
Snowy owls sometimes show little
most logical explanation is that their
food supply of lemmings (small
where owls might roost and we'd find
10 or 12 pellets under one tree, which
fear of man for the simple reason that
they live in the endless Arctic where
mouse -like rodents) becomes scarce
and therefore the owls migrate south
gives us an idea that owls usually
man is seldom seen. Therefore we
thought we could walk up a bit closer
to look for newer and more produc-
tive hunting grounds.
roost in the same area all the time.
Snowy owls usually perch on a high
to get a better picture, but for.some
Then again, it might just be that cer-
object such as a telephone pole, a
building, a high rise of sand or dune
reason this snowy owl had different
ideas and flew away.
tain birds have that yearning to travel
and come down our way in the winter -
or maybe just out in an open field .
Having photographed birds for
many years, I resorted to the next best
time. One thing is for sure, we don't
seem to get the quantities of snowies
where they have unlimited visibility.
As I mentioned before, their mainstay
thing, which was to use the car to get
up close. For some reason birds and
we did in years past. In those early
days almost anything was fair game
is the little lemming that inhabits the
Arctic area, but as they move south
animals aren't as frightened of cars as
they are of man. So we skirted around
and many a snowy owl was shot by
sportsmen here Long
on their migrations they will feed on
anything that moves below them, be it
the big buildings to the south and
worked our way up to where the bird
on Island. Let
me quote from "Birds of New York
State" by John Bull:
mouse, vole, rabbit, grouse or even a
crippled duck that might have been
had landed. It was sitting on an old
float and we were able to get fairly
"Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca ):
"1890 -1891— 20 shot at Montauk,
shot by a hunter.
up some igefficien owls
a
close to photograph.
Long Island, in a two -week period
you some d a of how
in
It was a magnificenf female, which
is larger and heavier than the male
prior to Dec. 6; over 70 shot on east-
em Long Island between Nov 24
are capturing mice and I came up
with this. Each snowy owl must con -
and has more dark markings on it, the
male being almost pure white. The
and
Dec. 12 (mounted by one taxidermist).
"1901
sume the equivalent of seven to 12
mice a day or as many as 350 a month
sun was bright and so the owl's eyes
-1902 (coastal) — Fishers
Island, Suffolk Co., (12 shot).
to meet its food requirements. This
idea
were partially closed and didn't reveal
their usual bright yellow. I remember
"1926 -1927 (coastal) — the greatest
Long Island flight on
gives you some of how important
these owls are in controlling rodents.
seeing those big yellow eyes .so clearly
on a snowy owl out on Gardiners
record — 40
killed on Fishers Island during
Add this to the catch that horned
owls, bam owls, screech owls and oth-
Island years ago when I participated
on a Christmas Bird Count out there.
November and December, and a sin-
gle taxidermist received 36 additional
ers capture and you can see the big
picture of how useful these lovely
I had been assigned to the south
end of the island and as I worked my
birds from eastern Long Island. At
Long Beach, Nassau eight were
Co.,
birds of prey are.
And so we want to thank Ski p
way through that wonderfully wild
shot the morning of Dec. 5 and at
least 75 more were shot elsewhere in
Goldsmith for calling in his early
sighting of a snowy owl. Not only did
the New York City region. any oth-
we get enjoyment out of photograph-
ers were seen throu h January 1927.
ing the bird and reminiscing about
past experiences with them, but I'm
sure he and his whole crew enjoyed
having this visitor from the north
spend time at their marina.