My Snowy Owl for the Instagram @wildlifewednesdaychallenge
With reference photos from Paul Bannick's photography and book “Owl: A Year in the Life of North American Owls” Some interesting fun facts I enjoyed learning in Bannick’s “Owl: A Year in the Life of North American Owls” book: The Snowy Owl male hunts for the food (mostly lemmings) and the female delivers the food to the babies. Sometimes, the female and nestlings get too hungry and the female must leave the nest to hunt. When this happens and the male returns to the nest, he seems unsure of how to feed them. According to Bannick's book, “... the male seems ill prepared, walking toward the youngsters and swinging the lemming back and forth. The young try to follow the prey with their heads but are unable to grab it. The female, upon seeing the male at the nest, emits a more desperate scream-whistle. She then flies aggressively toward the male and rips the prey from his bill before successfully delivering the lemming to the nestlings.” A bird irruption is a large number of birds migrating to areas where they are not commonly found. Experts believe snowy owl irruptions to not be because of lack of prey (especially lemmings) but more due to a lemming population spike during the last breeding season. More lemmings allow for more young owls to be successfully born and raised to adulthood. All these new snowy owls need a place to go. This is supported by the observation that most of the snowy owls in an irruption are relatively young. There are many other factors that could cause these irruptions too. Researchers are using bird banding and satellite tracking of these birds to learn more. Hope you enjoyed my close ups and fun facts! I’d love to hear your questions or comments about my Snowy Owl design in the comments below.
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Artist and Blogger
I'm just a doodling artist. My current style started in a lecture class at MCLA where I began doodling in my notebooks. Now I've started a new series focusing on animals. Archives
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