Jeff Tucker submitted this photo of a snowy owl he found this moving just north of Yellow Creek Lake in southern Kosciusko County. “My understanding is that these are pretty rare in this area and it is definitely the first I have ever seen in the wild,” said Tucker.

In fact, according to Indiana Dunes State Park naturalist Brad Bumgardner who told the Times of Northwest Indiana last month, the snowy owls have been venturing further away from the Arctic in search of food in recent weeks. Apparently, sightings of the white owls are becoming more common in Indiana.

As of mid-December, Baumgardner reported to the newspaper that about 54 snowy owl sightings had been reported in Indiana. Two-thirds of those sightings were reported in Lake, LaPorte and Porter counties, apparently because the birds tend to follow Lake Michigan’s shoreline.

Bumgardner, who’s the primary writer of the Indiana Dunes Birding blog, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana, said the snowy owls first appeared in Indiana in late November, which was typical, but their numbers have grown, which is not all that common.

Other area findings of the snowy owls have been in Plymouth, where a farmer found an injured one. That owl was being nursed back to health by a wildlife rehabilitator. South of Kosciusko County in Rochester, another snowy owl had been hit by a car. Unfortunately, that bird had to be euthanized.

Snowy owls can reach nearly 2 feet tall by adulthood and weigh more than 6 pounds. With a wingspan of as much as 59 inches, the yellow-eyed birds are the largest species of owl.

Adult males are virtually pure white, but the females and younger snowy owls tend to have dark scalloping.

In the Arctic, the birds diet largely consists of lemmings, but in Indiana, moles and meadow vole becoming their prey.

Although they regularly travel thousands of miles, often driven by a search for food, Bumgardner said scientists haven’t determined the true reason behind this large migration of snowy owls, which is termed an “irruption,” or a sudden increase in the relative numbers of the population.

Bumgardner told the newspaper it’s unclear how long the owls will hang around northern Indiana, but he said they usually head back north in March.
Source: Times of Northwest Indiana