Vermont’s Winter Birds – Part Two

We humans have been fascinated by owls as long as we’ve shared the earth with them. 

Owls have been seen as symbols of good fortune and as harbingers of doom. They’ve been worshipped as protective spirits. They’ve been associated with wisdom and with deceit.

Some say that we’re attracted to owls because when an owl is looking at you, it’s looking RIGHT AT YOU. 

photo by Larry Thompson

I’ve heard birders talk about feeling permanently changed after meeting an owl’s solemn and intent stare.

Several species of these charismatic birds hang around all winter. The most common is the Barred Owl, named for horizontal barring on the chest and vertical barring on the belly. 

photo by Peter Swaine        

Barred Owls are big birds, with a wingspan of over 40 inches. Unlike many other owls, they can often be seen in broad daylight. In winters with a lot of snow, or when a hard crust covers the snow, they show up near backyard bird feeders and wait for unwary birds or small rodents.

Barred Owls have a wide variety of noises but their characteristic call is a loud raspy "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you, all?"  

When we were kids, we all learned that owls hoot. Actually, most don’t - but Great Horned Owls do. They are quintessential owls, the bird that most people imagine when they hear the word owl. 

Great Horned Owls are even bigger than Barred Owls, with a wingspan of almost five feet! Females are larger than males (a pattern that’s common for owls and raptors but not for most other birds).

Great Horned Owls can nest as early as February. They don’t build their own nests, preferring squirrel nests, hollows in trees, rocky caves, manmade platforms, even abandoned buildings. They also like nests pre-made by other big birds. There’s one nest in Addison that’s regularly used by Great Horned Owls in the winter and Red-tailed Hawks in the summer.

Great Horned Owls in captivity have lived over 35 years but the oldest wild Great Horned Owl found was only 13. Most deaths are related to humans: owls get shot, caught in traps, hit by cars, or electrocuted on power lines.

Another big owl delights Vermonters in the winter – but not every winter!

photo by Jane Ogilvie

Snowy Owls have had lots of folk names: Ghost Owls, Ermine Owls, Tundra Ghosts and White Terrors of the North. Adult males are mostly white, females look salt-and-pepper, and juvenile birds can have quite a lot of black streaking.

Snowy Owls usually stick around all year on their breeding grounds in the far north, but in winters with too many owls or too few rodents, some come south. They’re most often seen in the broad flat agricultural fields of Addison County (which must feel like their tundra home). 

Addison County owl - photo by Curt Alpeter

But Snowy Owls also show up in unexpected places: atop a streetlamp at Tafts Corner, on a roof in a new South Burlington development, at airports. 

Snowy Owl in South Burlington

This winter, Snowy Owls have been seen in many places in the Champlain Valley, including the Colchester Causeway, the UVM Campus, North Hero, Addison and Shoreham. When you’re out driving around, be on the lookout for odd-shaped lumps in snowy fields. You might find your own Snowy Owl!

Text by Maeve - Photos by Maeve and various generous VT photographers and birders!