Re:
Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2021 8:04 am
The boreal owl is near Montreal on the south shore. Location can be founbd on eBird. There is one in Ottawa too but is being kept quiet (this from a reliable source). In eastern Ontario, I have not seen too many reports of great gray owl this winter. That can be attributed to a number of factors including the pandemic lockdown discouraging travel so less searching by people, some withholding of sightings or maybe the typical 4-year cycle will be interrupted by a 5-year cycle and the irruption will occur next winter. This has happened occasionally in the past several decades. Time will tell.hullyjr wrote:Maybe the recent cold weather is pushing owls further south? I've seen reports of Boreal Owls in Minnesota and one persists in downtown Montreal.
I'm heading up to Sax-Zim Bog at the end of this week. Fortunately, I photographed Boreal during their last big USA irruption in 2013.
But I'm not looking forward to the very cold weather!
Jim
I am aware that there have been a few great gray owls being reported although not to eBird. Same with northern hawk owl. I know of 3 but have been informed there are at least 5 in or near Ottawa. I plan to go see my second one soon. I did not get to see the one in the east end of town but it's likely still around. Someone mentioned there are actually 2 NHOW there. Pretty much you have to know someone who will share.
Someone over on the Quebec side across the river from Ottawa has searched a lot of the old familiar places and found zero great gray owls so far. I mentioned a couple of other spots he can look at. It just may be that the 4-year cycle for great gray owl irruptions will be 5-years this time. If yes, it is normal to see a smattering of great gray owls the winter preceeding or following an irruption winter. This may partially explain why so few sightings have been reported this winter.