No Snowy March 30, 2019
Posted by indigobunting in Uncategorized.trackback
I’m worried that I won’t see a snowy owl this year—that 2019 is the year that my snowy luck runs out.
I’ve had this worry before. In 2017, I listed one just under the wire: Christmas Eve.
Before 2014, I’d never even seen a snowy owl in the wild, but then there was an irruption, and suddenly they were around and findable. I saw my first one ever in February 2014. I counted 2015’s in January. (The only list I keep is my first sighting of a species in a year; I’ve seen more snowy owls than I’ve listed, but only a few.)
It’s not that by 2016 I was expecting to see one, but when I at last found one in November, I had to admit that I was getting used to being able to find them.
When November 2017 passed without a sighting, I was pretty sure my luck had run out, but December 24 was our day. We saw another four weeks later, in 2018.
And here it is the end of March. I didn’t see any of the owls that came through at the end of last year, and I haven’t seen one to count yet this year, so now, if I get one, it will be at the end of the year, if it happens at all.
After a five-year listing run, this could be the year I don’t see a snowy owl.
In other news, the red-winged blackbirds are back.
Route 153 
You have all of December to correct this. Have faith. And enjoy the blessings of blackbirds – they do not like our woods, so I only get to see them when driving along fields. (I miss reading you every day, my dear! We need another outing.)
It’s amazing that they’ve suddenly appeared in the last few years. I’m sure you’ll see one too, if not now, then at the end of the year.
I know how you feel though. it was only a few years ago that I first saw a kaka, and now I’ve been upset that they didn’t visit our deck all summer.
I googled the red-winged blackbirds. They’re lovely!
“An irruption” of owls–love the word, and I hope you still get one (irruption, that is).