Snowy Owls are being reported from Wisconsin in what has been called unusual numbers for November. One was seen near Bayfield in October. Most of the birds were seen along the Lake Michigan shoreline in eastern Wisconsin.
There have been 15 sightings.
Two sightings in Minnesota and a handful from the upper peninsula of Michigan are on the list. You can an eBird map of sightings at this link: bit.ly/2AmEq09.
One of the Minnesota sightings was in the metro area, the other north of Duluth along the lakeshore.
The report came from Ryan Brady, bird monitoring coordinator for the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative.
Brady expects more sightings as winter progresses. He said, in a written commentary, that photos seem to show most if not all of the owls as juveniles. He said this suggests that Snowy Owls nesting in arctic Canada were successful.
These owls hunt during daylight hours. They will roost on almost anything. They like flat open land (it's what they know), sometimes sitting on the ground, but more often on hay bales, fenceposts, telephone posts, rock piles, muskrat houses, tree snags, silos, and other structures.
Airports are common places to find them. Almost every year these birds are seen at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport.
Snowy Owls eat almost any live thing that moves: voles, mice, lemmings, waterfowl, rabbits, muskrats, weasels, and pigeons. Other bird species are taken as well.
