The Hartford Courant on January 8th, published a wonderful column by Gregory B Hladky about the Snowy Owl migration to Connecticut. Make no mistake about it when you see one you will know it by their haunting presence. The increase sitings are cyclical and are likely caused by successful breeding seasons in the Arctic. Many of the ones we see here are young raptors that have been chased out off traditional hunting grounds by adults and flown south to find open areas to hunt in peace according to researchers. These long distance travelers trek more than a thousand miles from northern Canada and wihin the Arctic Circle. Recent sitings has been mostly confined to our shoreline marshes, but there have been several sitings in central and northern Connecticut.
It’s worth emphasizing that there are “The Basics Rules” that the majestic, aloof and distinctive Snowy Owls observers are expected to follow (from Project SnowStorm):
Keep your distance
Respect private property
Don’t feed an owl, ever
Hyper-Local Weather Tracking
by Charles Miano
New Britain, Connecticut
