Snowy Owls and the Price of Love

As Smith students headed home in late December, an ethereal visitor took up residence in Hampshire County: the Snowy Owl. The arrival of these rare owls brought enthusiastic crowds to Northampton and Hadley, along with questions about how to best appreciate birds without harming them.

Snowy Owls are an irruptive species in Hampshire County, meaning they are irregular visitors based on their unpredictable migratory patterns. They breed in remote areas in the Arctic and occasionally make their way to more southern wintering sites. Larry Therrien, a prolific birder and the Pioneer Valley’s eBird reviewer, said “there can be several years between appearances of the species in the area, and it is always a species one keeps an eye out for during the winter;” he most recently encountered the species here in the winter of 2017-2018.​ Thus, these owls tend to attract many birders, especially with social media and citizen-science databases like eBird, where users can share the exact locations of rare birds. Therrien noted that most people respect the owls’ space, but some people put the birds at risk of stress by getting too close.

Conveniently for birders, Snowy Owls are huge, white, and like to sit out in the open during the day. “People tend to lose their minds with owls and Snowy Owls bring it to another level,” Therrien said. The Snowy Owls drew some Smith bird enthusiasts out into the cold, including first-years Zoe Yale and Nora Schneider. “It was a really magical experience,” Schneider said, while Yale described that the owl was “like a god” when it took flight. When they went out to find Snowy Owls together, they met a crowd of people with similar intentions.

Photo Courtesy of Joe Oliverio

While people are drawn to Snowy Owls due to their stunning magnificence, some overzealous observers may put the birds at risk. According to Therrien, since Snowy Owls typically appear when they run out of prey in the North, they risk being “loved to death” if people continue to get too close and disturb them.

Mary McKitrick, a Smith College research affiliate who has a background in systematic and evolutionary biology of birds, shared an example of this phenomenon. She described how a Snowy Owl was harassed by photographers on private property, and the property owner tried to scare off the owl for attracting so many visitors. The owl’s health deteriorated because it couldn’t hunt, and it ended up with a wildlife rehabilitator. “Most of the things that happen to owls that are very lamentable are because of us,” said McKitrick, including vehicle collisions and rodenticide consumption.

Additionally, overenthusiastic crowds can result in the loss of birding sites. Certain people who trespass and disrespect private property can give birders a bad reputation, said McKitrick, which can push landowners to close access to popular birding sites. 

All in all, seeing a rare Snowy Owl can be an eye-opening experience. Therrien emphasized that “for every person that creates issues for the birds and/or landowners [he wants] to think multiple times that number of people gain a better appreciation for birds in general.” For anyone hoping to spot these owls, here’s McKitrick’s advice: “Keep your distance. Put the birds first. If you're going to photograph, a long lens should be enough to keep you at a respectful distance… they're beautiful, they're wild, they're free. Let's keep them that way.”

Photo Courtesy of Joe Oliverio

By Amelia DeHoff