hey snowy: come on down

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Oh my gosh. They are so otherworldly, so beautiful! 


Look at those fluffy feet! Are those house slippers?


It's not every day that owls make national news, pontificating politicians seem to have a lock on the spotlight and the millions and millions and millions of dollars they are spending. But keeping it real, this has been a big winter for snowy white owls in the lower 48, so much so that their soirée south of the Arctic made NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. (He's got a soft spot for animals; he just loves a good whale story.)

Many snowy owls have been seen across the upper tier and as far south as Missouri, but none so far in Tennessee.


So this is an informal invitation (a formal one would have to come from the governor's office). The Volunteer State is warm and inviting, lots of juicy mice and voles but, sad to say, no lemmings. I hear they taste about the same, but a good Appalachian vole has a hickory root piquant you just don't find in those tundra fed lemmings.


An "irruption" of this many snowy owls seems to happen about once every ten years No one really seems to know exactly why it happens. 


There might even be a few groundhogs since it is their day.

NBC snowy owl report. 


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Dixon snowy

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The second rare visitor to delight Sue Wagoner and her fellow Illinoisans was this snowy owl that hung around Dixon all winter. (Must be a good place to pass the time. With all the harsh weather, the snow white owl must felt at home.)

Tundra dwellers in summer, they do venture into the U.S. occasionally in winter, primarily along the Northern Tier. Occasionally a snowy will migrate as far south in winter as the Volunteer State, one made it to Tennessee in January 2009, but I didn't get a chance to see it.

Thanks again, Sue.

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