The Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center confirmed the sighting of a Snowy Owl in the Kent Narrows area, Thursday afternoon.
The Snowy Owl was seen at Mears Point Marina and in the marsh by the Holiday Inn Express. According to the CBEC, it was last seen by the staff on the roof of a house in the Narrows Pointe Community.
Photo Courtesy: Rhonda Tuel
The CBEC asks the public to update them on the latest location of the bird and asks the public to respect other peoples property when viewing the bird. CBEC officials referred to the Snowy Owl as the “Holy Grail of birds.”
Conservation Community Consulting Principal Jim Rapp tells WBOC depending on the year, there are way more Snowy Owls on Delmarva during the winter months than some may realize.
Photo Courtesy: Rhonda Tuel
Rapp showed us an online database, known as eBird, that tracks bird observations and provides real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. If you go to the website and type “Snowy Owl” into the species block, click enter, and zoom in on Delmarva, the map should look something like this:
Map of the Snowy Owl population on Delmarva from eBird.
Rapp also showed us the feature allowing you to adjust the settings for the current year to see how many have shown up.
In 2016, there has been one bird in reported in Deal Island and one bird at Kent Narrows, noted by the CBEC. Rapp says the Kent Narrows bird has been seen quite a bit over over the past few days.
Project SNOWstorm is another website for tracking Snowy Owls and it explains what is known and not known about Snowy Owl migration.
Photo Courtesy: Rhonda Tuel
Follow this link explaining the release of a Snowy Owl at Assateague in 2014:
