Grey owls, bird-watchers flock to southern Ontario
Sun, 27 Feb 2005 09:59:01 EST
CBC News
AJAX, ONT. - Bird-watchers in southern Ontario are enjoying the rare sight of hundreds of grey owls who have moved into the area to find food.
This has been an excellent winter for the binocular-wielding enthusiasts. The birds are native to northern Ontario and Manitoba, but a lack of food is driving them out of their usual range.
Every 10 years, a cyclical shortage of voles and mice brings the great grey owls to fields in southern Ontario.
Right now, there are an estimated 500 to 1,000 of the owls within 300-kilometres of Toronto, said Mark Peck, an ornithologist at the Royal Ontario Museum.
"There are irregular movements of birds every five to 10 years and the last big movement was back in 1995-96," said Peck. "This one is especially interesting because it's probably the largest movement of birds in the area that we've ever had."
One pair of bird-watchers from London, Ont., woke up at 4 a.m. and drove 2½ hours to see the owls at a field in Ajax, Ont., east of Toronto.
"It's absolutely amazing," said birder Clair Nelson. "You hardly know they're there unless you really look."
"They're spectacular because they're so large," said Mike Nelson.
Naturalist Doug Lockery said he doesn't expect the owls will stay in the south to nest.
CBC News
AJAX, ONT. - Bird-watchers in southern Ontario are enjoying the rare sight of hundreds of grey owls who have moved into the area to find food.
This has been an excellent winter for the binocular-wielding enthusiasts. The birds are native to northern Ontario and Manitoba, but a lack of food is driving them out of their usual range.
Every 10 years, a cyclical shortage of voles and mice brings the great grey owls to fields in southern Ontario.
Right now, there are an estimated 500 to 1,000 of the owls within 300-kilometres of Toronto, said Mark Peck, an ornithologist at the Royal Ontario Museum.
"There are irregular movements of birds every five to 10 years and the last big movement was back in 1995-96," said Peck. "This one is especially interesting because it's probably the largest movement of birds in the area that we've ever had."
One pair of bird-watchers from London, Ont., woke up at 4 a.m. and drove 2½ hours to see the owls at a field in Ajax, Ont., east of Toronto.
"It's absolutely amazing," said birder Clair Nelson. "You hardly know they're there unless you really look."
"They're spectacular because they're so large," said Mike Nelson.
Naturalist Doug Lockery said he doesn't expect the owls will stay in the south to nest.
1 comment:
For some reason, unrelated to the grey owls, I chose to take a snowy owl out at the museum this weekend.
A visitor told me that he'd just gotten back from Thunder Bay and that there were so many owls that they were trying to make off with people's small dogs. He told me the story of one terrier who was walking around with a big gash on it's head after escaping from a tangle with one of them. There's one reason to keep your dog on a leash.
Actually, I read a pretty funny bit in one of our bird books while I was reading up on owls. Apparently, it's not uncommon for owls to try to take fur hats off of peoples heads mistaking them for live small mammals. I got a laugh out of that one.
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