As noted in the Great Horned Owl Snowmageddon posts, our unwinter ended big time. Apparently the snow totals for the storm were about 20 inches. While having a storm like this is not unusual for late March, the fact that for weeks prior there was not a single inch of white stuff on the ground was weird. I could tell many of my winter friends were around in the forest, but given the birds could forage on the forest floor throughout the winter, which is strange and unusual, feeder visits had been down in terms of numbers and species.

Our storm ended that situation, and Common Redpolls have invaded both my bird feeders and the public feeders I maintain at French River BIG time. At times it had not been uncommon over the past few days to have 300+ redpolls at all the feeders at once. I normally don’t post bird feeder images, but my Nyjer seed feeders … the redpoll’s favorites … shows the feeding frenzy after the storm.

Common Redpoll Feeding Frenzy

0Snowmageddon … Day #4 heralds the end of wind and snow showing the nasty side of Lake Superior. At my house, as of sunrise (cloudrise?) this morning, 17 inches of the white stuff had made its appearance. The “unwinter” ended in spring. Totals will be an inch or two more as winds have remained strong through the day resulting in snow squalls.

Les and Amy, my local Great Horned Owls, decidedly did not like Snowmageddon. Here are a few images taken since Day #1. I had to wait for brief letups in the snow. During heavy snow it was impossible to taken decent photos.

Amy: Day 3 Morning

Amy: Day 3 Afternoon

Amy: Day 4 Morning

Amy: Day 4 Afternoon (drying out!)

And Les, Poppa Owl (Day 4: Afternoon). He is back in his perch at the top of a white pine. During the storm he had to abandon this spot where he is able to be on guard duty … too windy.

Snowmageddon, although delayed did arrive here at the Head of the Lakes. It started snowing heavily a bit over 24 hours ago (noonish on Sunday). Incubating eggs for Momma Great Horned Owl was not much fun as the snow piled up around her, and on top of her. We’ve now had 12 inches of the white stuff down here within 1/2 mile of Lake Superior, and we have about another 24 hours yet to go for this storm, but at much lower snowfall rates.

My first photo hike into the snowstorm was at 4 pm yesterday afternoon. At this point about 5 inches of snow had fallen. Here is Amy, Momma Great Horned Owl in both a still images and video taken at that time. The snowfall rate seen in the video was 6/10 of an inch per hour (US Weather Service data).

Snowmaggen … The Movie! (link for email subscribers)

Now on to Snowmageddon Day #2 … and follow-up images from this morning 25 minutes after sunrise (cloudrise??):

And yet another image taken around 1 pm this afternoon … 25 hours after the storm’s start.

There was one other change in “owl status” today. Poppa Owl’s perch at the top of a white pine is obviously too exposed to the NE winds off Lake Superior. He is hiding today somewhere much lower. Surprisingly he did hoot for 10-15 minutes last night around 8 pm. I thought given the poor weather he would just hunker down and stay quiet.