A suite of birds reside year-round on the Arctic tundra or on the taiga, the habitat of sparse trees just south of the treeless tundra.\u00a0 These birds include Great Gray Owls, Snowy Owls and Common Redpolls.<\/p>\n
If food is in sufficient quantity, these hardy birds can survive the deep cold of these northern habitats.\u00a0 However, food availability varies from year to year.\u00a0 Common Redpolls depend heavily on the seeds of birches.\u00a0 When birches fail to have an abundant seed set, the redpolls move southward to find food.\u00a0 In some years, we Mainers are graced with abundant redpolls at our feeders.<\/p>\n
Snowy Owls feed primarily on lemmings on their arctic tundra habitat.\u00a0 Like many rodents, lemmings undergo dramatic shifts in abundance from year to year.<\/p>\n
One Snowy Owl may eat 1,600 lemmings in a year.\u00a0 When lemming populations crash, some Snowy Owls move southward to find food.\u00a0 Apparently the lemming populations on the tundra are poor this winter because a major invasion of the lower 48 states by these owls is occurring.<\/p>\n
I know of at least 30 sightings of Snowy Owls in Maine this winter, ranging from northern Aroostook County all the way south to coastal York County.\u00a0 A Snowy Owl has been regularly seen at the Nubble Lighthouse in York.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most of the sightings have been made along the coast.\u00a0 However, this apparent preference for the coast may be more of a function of the density of birders rather than the density of the owl.\u00a0 Regardless, in most years we see no or just a few Snowy Owls in the state.<\/p>\n