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Rare bird spotted in Lower Mainland

Snowy owl usually seen in the Arctic tundra
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This snowy owl was spotted in Langley during the Dec. 30 bird count. Photo by Bob Puls

It is one of only two or three snowy owls spotted in the Lower Mainland during all of 2017, and it was observed just before the year ended in Langley during the Dec. 30 annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC).

The owl would likely have been missed if it wasn’t for some crows that were “mobbing” the owl high up in a tree along 200 Street, said LFN member John Gordon.

The Langley Field Naturalists (LFN) are not saying exactly where the discovery was made because owl are “sensitive to disturbances” Gordon said.

The snowy owls usually make their homes north of 60° latitude in the Arctic tundra, in Alaska, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Eurasia.

The regal-looking bird is the largest (by weight) North American owl. It spends summers far north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings, ptarmigan, and other prey.

But it is a nomadic bird, and population fluctuations in its prey species can force it to relocate.

The owls have been reported as far south as the American Gulf Coast states, Hawaii, southernmost Russia, and northern China.

The annual count was organized by the White Rock and Langley Naturalist Clubs, along with the LFN and other conservation groups in the region.

Langley area group leader Mike Klotz said the local count was a “tremendous success … the one with the most interesting finds for the day.”

The weather conditions were considerably better than they were during the 2016 count, when 21 people who braved the well-below-freezing temperatures to count more than 4,000 birds and 61 species.

READ MORE: Birders brave the cold for annual Christmas count

The counts are used to study the health of local winter bird populations.

White Rock and Surrey are divided into many sections. Data collected during the Langley/White Rock count includes details on the number of birds of each species seen or heard within a local 24-km diameter circle. Surveying this circle year-after-year contributes valuable long-term information on how winter birds are faring, both locally and across the country.

During last year’s count in Canada, over 3 million birds and 278 species were counted by 14,000 participants in 447 counts across the country.

READ MORE: Counting birds in Langley



dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com

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Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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