Hi, Mary: I noticed your post because I enjoy looking for Owls, and Woodpeckers. I grew up around Akron and the Cuyahoga River. I think your thinking is right on target. Here in northern Illinois, we mostly have flat farmlands. I drive around in the mornings and evenings looking for Snowy Owls in the colder months. A few years ago, I was driving along an east/west road after a series of snowstorms, and the plows had cleared the roads, piling up about 5 foot drifts along the south side of the road. I usually travel about 15 miles an hour on the less-trafficked roads looking for Snowy Owl sightings. As I approached a low point in the road, I noticed that some melting had started and a section of the road in front of me had a trail of ice about nine feet wide running across the road from the plowed snow drift to my south. As I hit the ice, it started cracking with loud noises. A flash of white flew up my right beyond the drifts. I stopped, backed up, and got out to look across the snow drift. Out about 40 feet in the field, two snowy owls looked back at me. Having my ever-present camersa, I took a few pics over the top of the car. One spotted, one very white... Hmmm, thought I, perhaps a pair? I didn't stay long as my assumption was that they had been hunkering down on the south side of the drift to get out of the wind. By their only flying forty feet before landing, and looking back at me, I imagined that they were thinking, "I wish he would leave so we can go back to our little shelter from the wind." So, I did, but the next day, I came back, and checked out the south side of the snow drift. There were certainly many small crevices in the snow drift where they could have escaped the wind. Since then, I make a special effort to watch the prevailing winds, and any local geographic bluffs, or hills, or snow banks along the backroads. I will attempt to attach a photo to this reply.
As Ever, Orin Keplinger in Boone county, near Chicago.
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--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
From: Mary Huey <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Fairport Harbor Snowy
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2017 14:29:48 +0000
Good morning.My daughter and I drove out to Fairport Harbor late Friday afternoon to try again for a snowy owl -- nothing on the beach so headed to Fairport Nursery Rd just after 4:30. As we turned the curve coming from the west, we spotted an owl fly south across the road at the west end of the landfill. On the drive home, I got to wondering how consistently that owl is hunkering down on the north (lake) side during the day and then moving to the south side of the road and the larger area of the landfill to hunt in the evening. Might be a strategy for future stakeout/searchs? Just saying.
Mary HueyWilloughbyLake County
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______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
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