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While I was waiting for the ISS at 5:30 pm, something big and dark flew RIGHT over my head. A SNOWY OWL! I was so shocked I just about filled my drawers. There was just enough light to tell it was heavily barred and not a whole lot bigger than a Short-eared Owl - thus a hatch-year male. I followed him with difficulty in the gloaming in my binoculars, and he landed on an exposed ledge about 300 meters offshore. I watched him for a couple minutes, then noticed something white approaching over the water from the direction of Long Island. Another SNOWY OWL! It passed over the first and landed about 100 meters further down the ledge. I could hardly believe my luck! On a hunch, I scanned down the entire length of the ledge (about 1km long) and at the far northern end there was a third SNOWY OWL! Well, I had goose bumps already, but by now I had goose bumps on my goose bumps! As I watched, the middle one took off and made a pass at the first, then the two took off together toward the northern end of the ledge (I simply call it The Bar, because it is T-shaped and connected to the shore at low water). The first two came up on the third and then all three took off in different directions and I lost them in the dark. A couple minutes later, a flock of about 50 Black Ducks landed near where the owls had been. I have seen Purple Sandpipers out there on occasion as well. While doing research for a book I'm writing, I found this in THE AUK, (Vol. XIX, 1902): George Y. Dalzell (my great, great grandfather), keeper of Swallowtail Light Station at Grand Manan, wrote on 22 Feb., 1902 that "...there have been 14 killed on the island since the middle of December. Mr. John Moses (Alan Moses's father), the taxidermist, informs me that they were late in coming this year, and that their stay was longer than in former years. They frequent the the Three Islands (Kent, Hay and Sheep), the Two Islands (Inner and Outer Wood), and the Duck Islands, small islands to the south of Grand Manan. The live on seagulls, ducks, rabbits, mice and partridges, as portions and feathers of the above were found in them. I know they eat rabbits as I lost two myself." Turner Ingersoll, Jr., the keeper of Southwest Head Light at Grand Manan, wrote on 12 February, 1902: "I first noticed the Snowy Owls on January 4 after a heavy northerly gale, and they remained until the middle of the present month. I have seen eight or ten of the owls, though only three have been killed". And I found this short article in the St. Croix (St. Stephen, NB) Courier from Dec. 9, 1926: "A subscriber from Grand Manan writes: I have noticed by some of the papers that Arctic owls have been shot at different places in Charlotte county with a wing spread of six feet. A large flock settled on (Machias) Seal Island, Grand Manan, a few days ago and as they became very troublesome to the light keeper, he had to shoot 24 before they decided that they were not wanted, but I could not find any that had wing spread of more than five feet." A local fishermen and ardent gunner, who recently passed away in his late 80s, told me of going to Kent Island in October at the end of WWII (I later learned the date was Oct. 18, 1945) with a bunch of friends and shooting 11 of 16 Snowy Owls that they encountered that day. To them, at the time, it was legitimate sport and in no way frowned upon. With no small rodent population (except for maybe muskrats), Purple Sandpipers were likely one of the main prey items the owls were after (certainly at Machias Seal, which is very small, isolated and treeless). Rabbits, Black Ducks, muskrats (maybe, don't know if they were introduced by then or not) and Herring Gulls no doubt also attracted the Snowie's attention at Kent Island. It is beginning to look like this might one of the largest flights to the northeast, and the Grand Manan archipelago in more than 60 years, but only time will tell. Let us just hope that duck hunters here (and especially in Newfoundland, where there are hundreds right now) will let the owls be, as they have suffered enough already getting this far (alive). Oh yes, I even saw the International Space Station and the space shuttle too (thanks to Sherman Williams, for getting me outside at dusk this evening!). Brian Dalzell, Bancroft Point, Grand Manan Island, NB.
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