Flock together
Snowy owls entertain in Polson
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Polson’s current most famous residents aren’t even from Montana, but lately they’ve garnered attention of tourists from the far corners of the state and made their mark in publications all the way up to the New York Times.
In early January, around eight snowy owls, birds that nest on the Arctic tundra and don’t often take trips to the lower 48, arrived for a winter “staycation” in a neighborhood atop Skyline Drive. Roosting on rooftops and using nearby water towers as a hunting base, the feathered visitors have been stopping traffic and entertaining birdwatchers and photographers for nearly a month. And they’ll likely stick around a while longer, according to Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute in Charlo.
“As long as there’s food, they’ll probably just hang there until it’s time to head back north,” he said.
The Mission Valley’s exploding population of meadow voles means there’s abundant owl food in the area, and the group of snowys probably chose to hang out on Polson Hill because of good hunting, Holt explained.
With sightings of snowy owls popping up all over the United States this winter, Polson isn’t alone in its newfound fame, but it is somewhat unusual for such a large group of the birds to stay in one small area together.
“They’re usually solitary,” CSKT Wildlife Manager Dale Becker said.
“(But) they certainly seem to show up together,” Holt noted. “Traditionally, we used to think that snowy owls were very territorial … It just depends on the birds.”
Most of the snowy owls in the area appear to be juveniles, Holt added. Mature adult males turn pure white, while females stay speckled. From Holt’s observations of the Polson group, there are quite a few young males, who tend to roam farthest from home. While the birds are known for their nomadic nature, it’s only every few years that they appear in large numbers south of Canada. The phenomenon is known as an irruption, and the last one brought a flock of snowys to the Mission Valley in 2006.
“What drives them south? No one knows,” Holt said. “It’s hard to say … they just came off a good breeding year.”
A good breeding year for snowy owls means the birds’ main food source, lemmings, were plentiful, and rather than one or two chicks per nest, many nests produced up to five or more chicks. Those chicks all have to winter somewhere, and this year “it’s an enormous event,” he said.
Montana isn’t known for a balmy climate, but to the snowys, Polson is akin to a warm beach resort.
While bird enthusiasts and tourists are coming in from all over the country to see Polson’s snowy owls, according to Becker, he offered a word of caution for anyone wanting to get close to the birds.
