Snowy Owls in Minnesota This Winter?

Artic Species Has Potential for an Eruption

It’s generally accepted snowy owls tend to move south in numbers to the USA and in particular Minnesota every 4-5 years. Each year a few snowy owls are seen in Minnesota. The north shore is a noted spot. The area surrounding Duluth may harbor a snowy or three and airports are a common snowy owl wintering area. The last time I experienced many snowy owls was 2014. And I do have documentation of quite a few snowy owl sightings in 2019. This year would mark year 5 and many are predicting a snowy owl eruption in Minnesota. Not only because of past patterns but the conditions for breeding on the tundra this summer were very good and many of the baby owls (owlets) survived. The high owlet survival rate has the young owls looking for food and wintering areas.  The young owls can be detected by a considerable amount of dark feathers. I’m speculating, but with some research, that combining more owlets reached juvenile stage and the lower availability of food (poor lemming counts on the tundra) has many snowys flying south in search of wintering areas with a good supply of rodents. During my reseach I’ve found that snowys are appearing across the northern tier of states already with many seen in November. I’m guessing even more will be spotted in December.

Snowy owls prefer open areas, prarielands vast are best but I’ve seen them near Blaine in an area maybe a 100 hundred acres in size. They like airports because they offer high places to perch, flatlands and rodents. MSP airport has a snowy or two on most years and airports in Northwest Minnesota are also hotspots for snowys. I know snowys have been seen in North Central Minnesota,  Northwest Minnesota and in the Duluth area already and folks are anticpating more will arrive as winter takes it’s hold over Canada.

Looking for snowys requires a vehicle, and open areas. They are most often spotted on perches near these open areas. They’re white. Probably the only white birds out there in winter and the mere fact of their color makes them easy to spot when perched. Sometimes they will be on the ground too. This makes it tough if there’s snow on the ground but so far this winter is basically void of snow so a white spot in a farm field or grassland is very likely a snowy owl. These owls also hunt during the day and it’s a darn good bet if you spot a white bird flying over a field during winter it’s a snowy. It’s typical that a snowy will stay in it’s Minnesota wintering area until the food runs out. This is potentially the entire winter. So if you find one you may get the same chance I did a few years ago. I had 3 snowy owls that were working wintering areas. In this case 2 of them were metro birds and one was a bit outstate, about an hour from my home. I observed these owls for over a month and I was able to pattern their hunting habits. This lead me to put myself in a place to photograph them. Sometimes a lot closer than you’d imagine.  Snowys are hungry and they have little fear of humans when on the hunt. They fly, escaping percieved threats is simple. Plus most of the time I’m in my truck. The truck is a psuedo blind and it’s warm!

It takes some luck and persistence to find and photograph snowy owls. Luck can be honed in a bit with the use of the Web. It’s generally frowned upon to give exact snowy locations but there are many sites that will give you areas to check. If you want to find a snowy owl I’d head north and west and drive the county roads. But sometimes you may stumble into a snowy by accident as I did a few years back when a snowy flew over Lexington Ave in Blaine right in front of me. If you’re lucky and persistent you may get a chance to photograph these majestic owls.

Snowy Owls in Minnesota

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