A team composed of Hans van der Zweep, Jacques Bouvier, Christine Brunet and myself covered an area from Hawkesbury through Winchester today counting Snowy Owls. We began at 7:15 a.m. and ended at about 6:30 p.m. The team found 42 birds with all four members seeing 39. These were personal records for all and possibly a provincial one-day high count. Travelling in two vehicles increased our chances for picking up birds and we used radio communication which made the trip far more efficient. We had a good idea where many birds have set up territory so a higher total was certainly possible but many known birds did not show today. Windy conditions for part of the day meant that many hunkered down and were simply not visible when we passed by. We noticed the same thing earlier this week. Cold is not a problem but wind most certainly is.
On windy days, many birds lay low in open fields facing into the wind but are often protected by a clump of ground, small rise of snow or similar cover. You find some and miss others. Birds on a roof or silo sometimes perched on the lee side out of direct wind. When looking for Snowy Owls, snow covered weedy, scrubby or hay fields are preferable to corn fields where few Snowy Owls will be found because of the lack of food. As expected, the highest number of sightings were on poles close to roads. Many others were on silos or barns. Because of the wind, more birds than usual were found on the ground. Few were seen in trees and for the first time this year we saw one on a wire between poles. Three birds were discovered long after dark using night vision optics. It was a good day. On a positive note, there appears to be an adequate population of meadow voles for the owls despite our earlier fears about ice covered ground restricting their feeding. Brian Morin Cornwall _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
