Snowy Owls Make Mysterious Migration [View all]

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http://www.livescience.com/41770-snowy-owls-make-mysterious-migration.html

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The visitors from the Arctic have shown up as far south as North Carolina, on the island of Bermuda and in unusually large numbers in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes. Yesterday (Dec. 5), 15 were counted at Logan Airport in Boston.

For reasons no one understands, snowy owl sightings are spiking in eastern North America this winter.

"Maybe this is starting to shape up to be an irruption year," said Denver Holt, founder of the Owl Research Institute in Montana. 'Irruption' refers to the unpredictable migrations the birds make.

This wouldn't be the first snowy owl irruption in recent memory; it would be the third. Two years ago, the birds showed up in unusually high numbers from east to west across the continent. One was even spotted in Hawaii for the first time. The following year’s snowy owl irruption was less widespread and more directional, with birds showing up in the northern Great Plains, northern Rockies and the Pacific Northwest, according to the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. This year, owls appear to be drawn to another part of the continent.