A snowy owl looks on. (Scot Stewart photo)

“The owl is nocturnal with keen senses of sight and sound. It sees through the shadows of the night and hears the sounds in the silence; the illusion of the darkness.” – Anonymous

Winter evenings and late nights have grown cold and quiet quickly with this week’s weather. The days continue to grow with daylight. Today is set to be 10 hours and 19 minutes. With the colder weather, windows and doors are shut tight and the curtains quickly closed at night to hold in the heat but there is much to see and hear as the sun sets these nights.

Snowy owls have been prominent in Chippewa County again this winter with continuing reports from the Pickford-Rudyard, although most recent reports are for just one snowy. Earlier the trip reports from the area had up to five or six for a ride through the area.

In Marquette there have been reports of snowy owls, mostly along the Lake Superior shoreline since early December. The first were sighting over a day or two, then they would be stretches with no sightings for extended periods. Recently that changed with more regular reports. First reports were from near the Lake Superior shoreline from Picnic Rocks out to Presque Isle, More recently, daily reports started coming from the Lower Harbor from the breakwall to the downtown area.

The breakwall would be a safe spot for snowy owls as it would be out of the range most daytime crow patrols. It would put an owl close to open waters where some ducks like hooded mergansers, common goldeneyes, and long-tailed ducks might be. Besides the ducks, pigeons, cottontail rabbits, and small mammals along the shoreline and in town would be the owl’s prey targets during the night. Some conditions have changed, with Ice now stretching over most of both of the harbors in the city.

Recently, a snowy owl has appeared atop the Lower Harbor ore dock or on the tops of nearby buildings just before sundown with an apparent eye on the large flock of pigeons, about 40 or so, that spend late afternoons atop one of the apartments along the lake front. As the pigeons flush and circle the harbor, the owl has dropped down to the piers area and then back up on top of the apartments. There has not been much reported about where the owl goes after dark, or how successful hunts might be, but it has appeared to like the Lower Harbor area.

Owls have been busy around Marquette as at least two other species have been prominently heard, seen, or both recently. Marquette’s Parks have been the best places to find them. Barred owls and great horned owls have developed a strong presence in town. The barred owls are a bit more difficult to find, as the one active pair in town has maintained a fairly quiet life style, due in large part to an active population of crows sharing the same area. If they are at all visible during daylight hours the crows are usually there to protest.

Great horned owls have become very well established in the Marquette area over the past few years with at least six active pairs located in the city and in Harvey. In years past they even nested downtown in one of the churches. One pair does live in a heavily wooded area on the north side of town and can be heard frequently, sometimes as early as the late afternoon. They seem to be well acquainted with people and have been seen as well as heard with some regularity.

Barred owls prefer older woods for nesting in larger, with hollow trees for nesting but need some openings nearby for hunting. In the area where they are, primary foods are squirrels, chipmunks, deer mice, meadow voles, and rabbits. They will also eat frogs and some insects in warmer weather. Great horned owls diet mainly on mammals similar to what barred owls eat but include larger animals like skunks! They also eat some birds and some of those are surprising. They are the biggest predators of crows but also prey on osprey and even peregrine falcons, as well as smaller prey like northern flickers and even smaller owls. They do eat mice, voles, and cottontails too, especially in winter in the U.P.

In Chippewa County, a short-eared owl made an appearance as it flew over M-48 near Pickford. Short-eared owls are hunters of open lands, flying low over fields and open wetlands looking primarily for small mammals in Michigan – mice, lemmings, shrews and some rabbits. They may also prey on smaller songbirds and shorebirds. Because they often hunt early in the morning and dusk, they are more frequently seen than most other owls in the Upper Peninsula, although they are rarely spotted in the western and central counties. Nests have been confirmed in just a few counties in Michigan in widely separated locations, Baraga and Chippewa in the U.P. and in downstate Sanilac. Eight counties have had possible nesting, including Isle Royale in Keweenaw County.

With the ice build-up on Lake Superior most of the Marquette mallards and black ducks have headed in on the Dead and Chocolay Rivers. They have been joined this past week by a pair of northern pintail drakes. Mostly brown and white with long tail feathers, they have been a beautiful addition to the 500+ ducks flock in town.

A large flock of nearly 50 cedar waxwings and a few bohemian waxwings have also been seen in the crab apple trees in town. Been another great week to bird in the area.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Scot Stewart is naturalist at the MooseWood Nature Center, a writer and photographer.