How fast do snowy owls fly

In other wintering areas, along the Pacific coast of Canada and the northern United States and in the Atlantic provinces and New England, their occurrence is less regular.

In these regions, a winter with a large number of Snowy Owls may be followed by several years in which none are seen. It is mostly first-year birds that visit these less frequented areas, with relatively few adult owls appearing. Individual Snowy Owls have been recorded as far south as central California, Texas, and Georgia, but such records are exceptional. It was once believed that Snowy Owl migrations were periodic, occurring regularly every three or four years, and that they matched the population lows of arctic lemmings.

However, recent analyses of Christmas Bird Counts show that the numbers of Snowy Owls wintering in various parts of North America fluctuate irregularly from year to year.

Some Snowy Owls may also migrate between Russia and Canada. Although fast enough to capture ducks on the wing, the Snowy Owl prefers small mammals as prey. In the Arctic it may eat arctic hares, ptarmigan, foxes, or seabirds when available, but lemmings are its primary prey.

These rodents, resembling large meadow mice, are very heavy breeders and their populations grow rapidly, eventually outstripping the food supply. At such times, starvation, disease, and predation cause lemming numbers to dwindle rapidly until the lemmings seem on the point of vanishing. From this low, the population gradually recovers until, three or four years later, it again reaches a peak.

These population fluctuations of lemmings are consistent over areas of the tundra as large as 2 km 2 , with important consequences for the breeding biology of Snowy Owls in these areas. On their winter range, Snowy Owls also feed mainly on small rodents, usually meadow voles and white-footed or deer mice. Snowy Owls that winter near grain elevators or garbage dumps may feed almost exclusively on rats. However, Snowy Owls will hunt for what is available and will feed on mammals ranging in size from shrews to jackrabbits and on birds ranging from sparrows to ducks and pheasants.

Prey are usually captured at the end of a short flight from a perch, although Snowy Owls also hunt on the wing, especially on the flat arctic tundra, flying slowly 10 to 15 m above the ground, ready to drop on any prey.

Snowy Owls, like other birds of prey, swallow small prey items whole. Strong stomach juices digest the flesh, and then the indigestible bones, teeth, fur, and feathers are compacted into oval pellets that the bird regurgitates, or brings up, 18 to 24 hours after feeding. Regurgitation often takes place at regular perches where dozens of pellets may be found.

Biologists frequently examine these pellets to determine the quantity and types of prey eaten. In southern Canada, the pellets most commonly contain the fur and bones of meadow voles and other mice. Each Snowy Owl must capture the equivalent of 7 to 12 mice a day to meet its food requirements. Snowy Owls that winter in southern Canada and the northern United States begin moving northward to their arctic breeding grounds in February and March.

Snowy Owls sometimes gather in pairs or small groups at this time, and occasionally as many as 20 Snowy Owls may be seen perched within a few hundred metres of one another. Most are gone from their wintering range by April.

Migrating Snowy Owls return to their breeding grounds while the tundra is still snow-covered. Each pair occupies a breeding territory of 1 to 2 km 2 in area. Courtship begins in early May.

The male performs display flights with exaggerated wing beats, as well as ground displays in which he stands erect in front of the female with his wings partially spread.

Often a male will carry a dead lemming in his bill during these displays. The nest is merely a shallow depression scraped in the ground by the female, containing a few of her feathers and perhaps a few species of grass or moss.

Nests are located on knolls, ridges, or other prominent locations. These are the only snow-free sites available when nesting begins and provide commanding views of the surrounding areas. The breeding of Snowy Owls is intimately related to fluctuations in lemming populations in regions where the owls depend on this food supply. When lemmings are plentiful, Snowy Owls respond by laying large clutches, or sets of eggs, containing as many as 11 or 12 eggs.

When lemmings are less numerous, the clutch size is four to seven eggs. When a local lemming population crashes, Snowy Owls may not nest at all or they may move 50 to km and breed in another area where lemmings are available. Only the female incubates, or warms, the eggs and broods the newly hatched young, sheltering them by sitting on them.

Because temperatures are usually below freezing during the early stages of the nesting cycle she must perform these duties almost continuously. During this period the male feeds his mate, capturing lemmings and delivering them to her at the nest. He also provides most of the food for the chicks during their first weeks of life. One egg is usually laid every second day until the clutch is complete, but incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. Consequently, following an incubation period of 32 to 34 days, chicks hatch, usually in July, at intervals of approximately 48 hours.

Therefore, broods contain chicks that range widely in age and size. Although staggered hatching results from the need to begin incubation with laying of the first egg, it also permits adjustment of brood size to the food supply. If the adults are unable to provide sufficient food for all their chicks, the younger, smaller chicks are unable to compete with their larger nest-mates, and soon starve.

Newly hatched chicks are covered with white down, but they rapidly grow an additional, dark grey coat of down, so that they appear nearly black at 10 days of age. Chicks leave the nest when only three to four weeks old, long before they can fly. They scatter widely around the nest but are faithfully fed by their parents. The young have huge appetites, and the parents of a brood of nine chicks must provide about kg of food, or nearly 1 fully grown lemmings, before their young become independent.

Fledging, or first flight, occurs at seven to eight weeks of age, by which time the dark down has been replaced by immature plumage. By this time the short arctic summer is almost over, and the young birds must soon undertake their first migration. Snowy Owls have few natural predators. During the nesting season, unattended eggs and chicks may be subject to predation by jaegers—swift-flying, predatory relatives of gulls—or by arctic foxes.

However, the adults are vigilant and well equipped to defend against these threats. Although exposed to severe environmental conditions in both summer and winter, Snowy Owls are superbly adapted to cope with these challenges. Food shortage may be a danger, but their mobility permits Snowy Owls to move to areas where supplies are sufficient.

Although starvation may kill some immature, inexperienced birds that wander beyond the normal winter range, human activities probably pose the greatest danger to birds that spend the non-breeding season in settled regions. Collisions of flying birds with power lines, wire fences, automobiles, or other structures are an important cause of mortality among Snowy Owls wintering in southern Canada.

At one time, hunters shot Snowy Owls during their movements from the Arctic. While some Snowy Owls are still shot illegally in winter, most people are satisfied to enjoy the sight of these spectacular and mysterious birds, or to shoot them with cameras rather than guns.

Provincial and territorial regulations prohibit the killing of these birds in all parts of Canada. Banding for scientific purposes—tracking birds by placing numbered aluminum bands on their legs—requires special federal and provincial permits. Environment Canada supports arctic ecology projects that include the study of Snowy owls. For example, work on Bylot Island, Nunavut, has examined the interactions between Snowy Owls, Snow Geese, arctic foxes, and lemmings, and has shown how geese benefit by nesting close to Snowy Owls because the owls provide protection from other predators, like foxes.

Environment Canada has also supported studies of the biology of Snowy Owls in winter. This species is an important component of the food web in the tundra ecosystem and a fine example of complex physical and behavioural adaptations to the extreme conditions of this environment. During its visits to the south, the Snowy Owl may play a useful role in the natural control of rodents in agricultural regions. Parmelee, David. Snowy Owl. In The Birds of North America , no. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F.

Gill, editors. All rights reserved. Text: Ronald D. Weir Revision: M. The Northern Leopard Frog Lithobates pipiens is named for its leopard-like spots across its back and sides. Historically, these frogs were harvested for food frog legs and are still used today for dissection practice in biology class. Northern Leopard Frogs are about the size of a plum, ranging from 7 to 12 centimetres.

They have a variety of unique colour morphs, or genetic colour variations. They can be different shades of green and brown with rounded black spots across its back and legs and can even appear with no spots at all known as a burnsi morph.

They have white bellies and two light coloured dorsal back ridges. Another pale line travels underneath the nostril, eye and tympanum, ending at the shoulder. The tympanum is an external hearing structure just behind and below the eye that looks like a small disk. Black pupils and golden irises make up their eyes. They are often confused with Pickerel Frogs Lithobates palustris ; whose spots are more squared then rounded and have a yellowish underbelly. Male frogs are typically smaller than the females.

Their average life span is two to four years in the wild, but up to nine years in captivity. Tadpoles are dark brown with tan tails. Lampreys are an amazing group of ancient fish species which first appeared around million years ago. This means they evolved millions of years before the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

There are about 39 species of lamprey currently described plus some additional landlocked populations and varieties. In general, lamprey are one of three different life history types and are a combination of non-parasitic and parasitic species.

Non-parasitic lamprey feed on organic material and detritus in the water column. Parasitic lamprey attach to other fish species to feed on their blood and tissues. Most, 22 of the 39 species, are non-parasitic and spend their entire lives in freshwater. The remainder are either parasitic spending their whole life in freshwater or, parasitic and anadromous. Anadromous parasitic lampreys grow in freshwater before migrating to the sea where they feed parasitically and then migrate back to freshwater to spawn.

The Cowichan Lake lamprey Entosphenus macrostomus is a freshwater parasitic lamprey species. It has a worm or eel-like shape with two distinct dorsal fins and a small tail. It is a slender fish reaching a maximum length of about mm. When they are getting ready to spawn they shrink in length and their dorsal fins overlap. Unlike many other fish species, when lampreys are getting ready to spawn you can tell the difference between males and females.

Females develop fleshy folds on either side of their cloaca and an upturned tail. The males have a downturned tail and no fleshy folds. These seven gill pores are located one after another behind the eye.

There are several characteristics which are normally used to identify lamprey. Many of these are based on morphometrics or measurements, of or between various body parts like width of the eye or, distance between the eye and the snout.

Other identifying characteristics include body colour and the number and type of teeth. Some distinguishing characteristics of this species are the large mouth, called and oral disc and a large eye. This species also has unique dentition. For example, these teeth are called inner laterals. Each lateral tooth has cusps and together they always occur in a cusp pattern.

At the same time, the Sea Otter is the largest member of its family, the mustelids, which includes River Otters, weasels, badgers, wolverines and martens.

It may come to land to flee from predators if needed, but the rest of its time is spent in the ocean. It varies in colour from rust to black. Unlike seals and sea lions, the Sea Otter has little body fat to help it survive in the cold ocean water.

Instead, it has both guard hairs and a warm undercoat that trap bubbles of air to help insulate it. The otter is often seen at the surface grooming; in fact, it is pushing air to the roots of its fur. Mollusks are invertebrates, meaning they have no bones. They are cold-blooded, like all invertebrates, and have blue, copper-based blood.

The octopus is soft-bodied, but it has a very small shell made of two plates in its head and a powerful, parrot-like beak. The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the world.

Specimens have weighed as much as kg and measured 9. Studies determined, though, that they are indeed different. While the Western Chorus Frog might have slightly shorter legs than the Boreal Chorus Frog, and that their respective calls have different structures, genetics have proven this.

Chorus Frogs are about the size of large grape, about 2. They are pear-shaped, with a large body compared to their pointed snout. Their smooth although a bit granular skin varies in colour from green-grey to brownish. Their favorite target is lemmings—small mouselike rodents—but they also hunt for other small rodents, rabbits, birds , and fish. Snowy owls have excellent eyesight, but they obviously can't see their prey when it's underneath snow or a thick layer of plants.

To capture those meals, the owl relies on its other keen sense: hearing. In flight, snowy owls generally cruise low to the ground. Once they spot their prey, they approach it from the air, and snatch it up using the large, sharp talons, or claws, on their feet. Most owls sleep during the day and hunt at night, but the snowy owl is active during the day, especially in the summertime. They tend to be most active at dawn and dusk.

Snowy owl pairs usually mate for life. Female snowy owls lay from 3 to 11 eggs at a time, in a nest built on the ground. When there is plenty of food available, snowy owls tend to lay more eggs than when food is scarce. Lemmings make up the main part of the snowy owls' diet, and lemming population numbers rise and fall naturally.

Sometimes, if there is not enough prey around to feed baby owls, the adult pair won't lay any eggs at all until the supply of food improves. The best time of day to see owls is at dawn or dusk when these birds are more easily spotted and more active. Where Do Snowy Owls Sleep?

Like most owls, snowy owls are active during the night and sleep in the day. Their sleeping cycle is the same, but the place where they sleep is different. Living in the northern parts of the north pole, snowy owls sleep on the branches of trees, mountains, rocks, or hills.

Do polar bears eat snowy owls? Arctic hares are eaten by brown bears, kittiwakes, and snowy owls. Brown bears are eaten by nothing. Arctic wolves, polar bears, kittiwakes, and snowy owls are all killed by man.

It can fly from very close to the ground or water to more than 30 m heights. No, the heaviest owl in existence only weighs about 8 pounds max. A bird can only lift a fraction of their weight, so a large Rabbit is about all they can carry. Large owls can KILL a 20 pound dog not likely to , but not fly off with it. Some misguided individuals do purchase dogs, fish, birds or other animals after seeing these animals in films.

An illegal trade in owls and other birds still exists for their use as pets, to be forced to perform, for sacrifice or other reasons. In a battle between an owl and an eagle, bet on the owl. Bald eagles can weigh up to 14 pounds. Their wings can spread to seven feet, which is two feet wider than the smaller owl can manage. But great horned owls are fierce.