OHIO – Like many animals in the fall and start of winter the Snowy Owl is finishing its migration, but it does not go as south as other birds.
The Snowy Owl spends its summers North, really north in the Arctic Tundra areas where it breeds and spends time defending nests. In the summer the owl flies south into southern Canadian provinces and the Northern US. Reports of birds going further south but it is more uncommon. Ohio is on the edge of this migration and seeing a Snowy Owl in the Buckeye State can be rare.
“Not too many of them make a 2,000 mile trek from nesting areas,” said the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, “but we usually get a few photos every year.”
But, In 2018, a seemingly record numbers of snowy owls appeared in Ohio. Typically, sighting of the beautiful birds tend to be in northern parts of the state.
These birds are pretty nomadic in the summer months living solitary and hunting close to waterways, large fields, and open ranges. They will feed in most smaller birds even geese, mice, and larger rodents.
Snowy Owls have been documented in Central Ohio and even in Pickaway County. Keep a eye out, local photographer captured a snowy owl at the end of the winter season in Pickaway County in 2018.
