This book had its origins when I saw a snowy owl in a big field near Ft. Edward, NY which is about 25 miles from my home. This occured in the late 1980's, and at the time I had no idea of writing a book about the owl, although I was fascinated by this northern visitor. In subsequent years I traveled the Arctic from Alaska to Labrador, but never once did I see a snowy owl on the tundra. This was simply bad luck, as on my last trip, to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, I was well within their range. However, that year the lemming population had "crashed" in the area I traveled, and none of the little hamster sized rodents were could be found. Lemmings are the main food of snowy owls, and so all the owls had moved to better hunting grounds.

When lemming populations are low, snowy owls will leave the Arctic as winter approaches and fly south. They hunt mice and rabbits, and prefer to spend time large open areas that resemble their homeland tundra. The wide pastures of dairy farms and also airport grounds provide good, open hunting spaces for these large birds.

I will write more about this book soon, but for now let me say that this winter, 2008, a snowy owl has returned to the same area where I saw one about twenty years ago. I was able to get a photograph of it, although it was quite far away, so the picture is not the best. I appears to be a young female. Females are more heavily marked with gray than the males, which become almost pure white after two years. The gray markings help camoflage the bird when they are sitting on the nest.

To help with my studies, I also found that the Utica, NY Zoo, has a pair of snowy owls. In this picture you can clearly see the difference between the white male and the barred female.

More about Ookpik and the book soon!



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