Emotional Support Animals in action. Beagles get ready to board a plane.

Over Christmas I flew roundtrip from New York to Chicago in a way that goes against everything airlines stand for today: I paid no extra fees and had no unnecessary paperwork despite the fact that my daughter and I flew with two beagles at our feet as Emotional Support Animals. The planes didn’t crash. The beagles didn’t unpredictably go wild. They didn’t even steal any cookies.

The credit for these new flying feats goes technically with the Air Carrier Access Act that originally written to stop airlines from mistreating people in wheelchairs, sometimes by dragging them through the plane. But I think the real credit for the recent surge in people flying with emotional support animals goes back to another law change: airlines have to tell the public how many animals die or get hurt or lost when they travel essentially as freight on airlines. Both laws were revised to apply more broadly.

Even with everyone paying extra attention, 307 animals died, 169 were injured and 53 lost on airlines in the 10 years ending in November 2015. The result is airlines don’t want to take the risk of freezing another dog; some have stopped flying animals that way altogether.

Today there are three ways to fly with your dog: you pay a lot of money for the dog to go in cargo (same pressurized air as the cabin, but this is where horrible deaths happen or dogs get out), you pay a lot of money for a dog that fits under the seat (generally 20 pounds) or you get a letter from a doctor or other professional saying you need emotional support animals. You have to have some condition that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says would benefit from an emotional support animal.

I qualify, but for years I looked askance at people going through airports with their animals. Surely they were taking advantage of the rules. There’s a danger that if we loosen the rules for helping people with disabilities, the people who really need help won’t get the assistance and respect they deserve.  The New York Times has also worried that people who use wheelchairs at airports to get around the growing security lines are milking the disability system, too.

Would people think my beagles were seeing eye dogs? Nope. That turned out not to be a real issue. The people I encountered absolutely understood the difference. Service dogs are trained with the equivalent of a dog PhD. before they meet the person whose lives they immeasurably improve. Service dogs rightly get to go anywhere. My dogs got their certification through my diagnosis, not their skill. Huck and Moxie can go on the plane and a few extremely limited travel accommodations, but that’s it. I didn’t go in for any of the unofficial Emotional Support Animal badges and registry that you can buy easily online. I did have them wear sturdy Ruff-Wear harnesses that I already had.

The only people I was worried about in a practical sense were people with allergies. The most severe allergies are to cats, not dogs. Still, dogs on a plane wouldn’t be fun for someone with severe dog allergies. (Contrary to what I and most passengers believe, we do get fresh air in flight, but tend to share it with those in the few rows around us.) So I gave them a bath the day before–the same thing therapy dogs do before going to a hospital to reduce their dander.

Obviously I don’t care about the airlines: we have all gotten used to the adversarial way this game is now played. The airlines try to lure us in with a low fare, then charge every fee they can imagine and get away with. We, the customers, try to dodge the fees like they were bullets.  Since my dogs are too big to fly in the cabin for a fee anyway, I’m going to do anything legal I can to get them there.

As a practical matter this is how it works: I already had the diagnosis. I took it to a doctor who specializes in these letters. She asked me a boatload of personal questions, then signed off. I called the airline ahead of time–they gave me some pushback about two dogs, but were fine. I  showed up with the letter. I did pay extra for us seats with extra leg room. I made sure the dogs peed outside beforehand in the right area. And I flew Delta from the Marine Air Terminal, which is an adorable toy airport.

Not every dog would be right for air travel, but Moxie and Huck are nearly perfect. They are jolly, calm and always have time to say hello to someone. They are used to being model beagle ambassadors because everyone loves to say hi to a beagle. Nearly, but not quite, perfect. Moxie “Epoxy” sticks with her family. Huckleberry will run if he catches a scent of food.

This lead to the one incident in our travel. For some odd reason, the dogs have to go through the metal detector with neither collars nor person. Huck had no problem. Moxie, however, didn’t want to leave me. I eventually got her through by pretending to throw a treat (The real ones were, unhelpfully, in my purse on the conveyor belt.) But just as Moxie went through, Huck got bored and took off through the LaGuadia Marine Air Terminal. I ran after Huck in my socks and my daughter and Moxie ran after me. Huck didn’t get too far–just to the free magazine rack. The TSA was remarkably good-humored about the whole thing.

On the plane, the dogs settled in at our feet, mostly under the seat in front of us. They slept–except for the usual airplane bumps. The Delta staff at the were as nice as could be. The dogs didn’t bother anyone, even when the flight attendants brought around those delicious speculoos cookies. We got off to a surly, delayed crowd at O’Hare, which immediately made way for the beagles and smiled at them. The only disruption they caused was that so many people wanted to say hi to them.

O’Hare is now starting to accommodate the growing number of emotional support travelers: last fall they opened a pet relief area in Terminal 3 (sadly, not our terminal.) Getting your dog certified as an emotional support animal seems to be the way of the future. Eventually someone will come up with a way to let airlines just charge us for a regular seat for our dogs. But for now this is the uneasy truce between dog people and the airlines.

Dogs have been enjoying drinks at NYC bars forever–until cat people spoil the fun

The Gate, one of the most famously dog-friendly bars in New York City, posted a sign Sunday saying that it’s been busted by the Health Department and will no longer allow dogs. Thousands of dogs and dog lovers have been enjoying the outdoor patio of Park Slope’s divey bar for decades with nobody catching rabies or even cooties, but as the sign points out, the outdated law is forcing them to stop the practice.

This sad outcome is only possible because New York City has an outdated health code that reflects medieval superstition rather than infectious disease science. Chicago passed a dog-friendly code in 2012 and has since seen no calamity. Restaurants don’t have to allow dogs, but they can if they want to. The whole state of California officially decided in August to allow dogs in outdoor seating. European bars and restaurants have welcomed dogs for centuries and they seem to be doing fine.

I happened upon now New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio back when he was a long-shot candidate at the Grand Army Plaza Farmer’s Market in June, 2013, and I asked him about New York allowing dogs at outdoor cafes like Chicago. He said New York is “more dense” so he didn’t know if it would be feasible. Really, Park Slope is more dense than the Loop? Than L.A. or San Francisco? Frankly, I like that the mayor supports getting rid of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, but this law (along with maybe banning the sale of puppies and stronger spay-neuter rules) would do a lot more to improve the lives of New Yorkers and their animal friends.

The Gate points out that it has been “not endangering human health” since 1997. Often it seems like you have to have a dog to sit out on the patio. It’s the whole point of going there. For me and many others, the dog policy is the main attraction. People sit outside on the patio, bring their dog, and the staff, who have always been really nice, even let you bring in food from area restaurants since The Gate doesn’t serve food.

Dogs sadly no longer allowed at The Gate in Brooklyn’s Park Slope.

New York dog lovers and their favorite bars have been doing a dance around the law for decades. The Scratcher in the East Village was the favorite bar of dog people for years–until one day someone who didn’t like dogs came in and didn’t like it. Then, instead of going to any other bar in the city that didn’t allow dogs, they called the health department. Other places make you tie the dog outside the fencing–which creates more problems for dogs, their people, and anybody walking by than its worth.

There are so many things New York City could do to make restaurants stop spreading illnesses–more hand sanitizer, fewer bathroom doorknobs, maybe some bleach solution on condiment containers and menus. But if I want to have a beer–or even a salad–with a dog at my feet, I should be able to do it in what is America’s most sophisticated city.

Painted lady butterflies–kind of a runtish, drab cousin of the monarch–are migrating through New York City. Look for mobs of the smallish orange and brown butterflies on cherry trees. (Update: They may also be Red Admirals,  Gothamist says)

One tree on First Street and Prospect Park West had hundreds of the butterflies, which migrate from Mexico, flitting around them last night. We went back to check what seemed to be the roost this morning. Nothing.

On the Prospect Park Audubon bird walk this afternoon, another woman said her backyard cherry was also swarmed with the little butterflies last night.

The painted ladies seem to be having a great year, thanks to wet weather in Mexico. KCET in San Diego reported last month that their area was seeing huge numbers owing to the bumper crop of “thistles and cheeseweeds.” The Urban Dictionary says that’s marijuana, but what they’re really talking about is a plant that looks like rhubarb, but without the red stems, and grows in vacant lots. You can see why they like NYC.

Even though the painted lady lives nearly everywhere in the world, we’re still not clear on the details of its annual migration, Everett D. Cashatt of the Illinois State Museum says. The Iowa State entomology department is tracking them. But they’re not supposed to stop much, so yesterday may have been our big, peak day.

Their more spectacular and easily recognized cousins, the Monarchs, are also plowing through the latitudes of New York and Chicago in the last few weeks, according to the citizen scientist map at Learner.org.

Read more about butterfly migration

Where to SEE HAWKS, OWLS & OTHER RAPTORS

Lanny Chambers, who runs hummingbirds.net says hummingbirders have been debating what’s going on with this freakishly early migration of ruby-throated hummingbirds and the consensus is that most of the birds are still sensibly waiting down south to be sure they don’t get caught in cold weather. In many other species it’s the young male pioneers that are always the ones wandering out early and far, hoping to get ahead. All of the manatees caught way up north in recent years, for example, have been males.

In hummingbird world, the males head north first to stake out a good territory. “I would be surprised if people were spotting females north of their normal ranges,” Chambers says. They have no reason to go early. They don’t have a regular mate or family structure; it’s every hummingbird for itself. The females “pick males that are the orneriest, nastiest” birds defending good territory, he says.

Another hummingbird tracker, Learner.org, has done a very cool animation of the migration data. Even though they employs school kids as citizen scientists–and so have a completely independent set of information–they show the same thing as hummingbird.net: a very early start to a migration, but the bulk of birds still hanging back in the south until it’s a sane time to head north.

Chambers says that some hummingbirds probably try to head north early every year, but storms stop them. They just go hide in the bushes. Hummingbirds are tougher than their delicate frames suggest, he says. “They can take a night or two of temperatures in the teens,” he says. “Twenty degrees isn’t a problem. They may be uncomfortable, but they’ll be okay.” Their main food isn’t flower nectar (or the Kool-Aid like drink people put out for them); it’s bugs.

Don’t take their early migration as a sign of global warming, the apocalypse or even of a hot summer. Hummingbirds spend the winter in Mexico and Central America, so they have no notion of what the weather is up here before they take off across the Gulf of Mexico. Studies show they go by hours of daylight, Chambers says.  “Ruby throated hummingbirds have been arriving on the gulf coast exactly when they always do,” he says. “This is a pattern that just doesn’t vary.”

Read about the hummingbirds that came early or never left at all

Check out hummingbird.net’s very cool advice on attracting hummingbirds and using feeders

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

SEE ANIMALS IN THE NORTHEAST (NY, NJ, MD, MA, ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, PA)

Animal tourists would love the new refuge, even though it’s not, like the original refuges, tailored to save a certain species or natural wonder. (Teddy Roosevelt made Pelican Island the first in 1903 one to save egrets from poachers after the birds for hat feathers.) Hackmatack is like more recent refuges: it’s not here because the wildlife is particularly awesome, but because it’s savable and near people.

” We’ve been talking about the Hackmatack NWR as one of the new urban refuges that the USFWS has made a priority. Another reason why our area makes sense,”  says Cindy Skudrud who helped start Friends of Hackmatack.

But, the wildlife would include whooping cranes at least twice a year as they migrate through, plus the possibility of mountain lions. The refuge would also offer a chance to see river otters, Blandings turtle and a bunch of other grassland and water birds, says Skudrud. Dickcissel, Henslow’s sparrow and short-eared owl, the savanna-loving red-headed woodpecker, and wetland-dependent species like pied-billed grebe and least bittern would use the land, which is mainly forest, prairie and peat bog. Here’s a list of 57 endangered and threatened species of plants and animals that would be helped by the NWR. It includes the Tamarack (Larix laricina), a kind of larch tree, whose native name gives the refuge its unwieldy name.

When the refuge system celebrated its 100th birthday, Skudrud and other conservationists realized Chicago was the only big city without a refuge within an hour’s drive. (Even the new one will be a bit of a stretch. It’s an hour twenty two minutes from Chicago’s northernmost outpost, Roger’s Park, though if you count the gerrymandered O’Hare and speed a little you might make it.)

The plan is to save and connect the existing scraps of parks and conservation land.

The wildlife service’s FAQ reads like they only answer to the Tea Party instead of the average Chicagoland resident. They answer questions on federal property rights, whether hunting will be allowed (yes), whether they’ll grab land from farmers (no) and whether they’ll be willing to feed and shoot Canada geese to keep them off farmland (absolutely!). Nowhere in the FAQ is the answer to what seems like the most important questions: what will the millions of people who live in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor be able to enjoy at Hackmatack NWR? Why is it worth saving? You can let the FWS know you’d be interested in seeing the animals at Hackmatack by writing them.

Comments are open on the plan until April 27. You can email r3planning@fws.gov

While you’re at it,  tell the FAA to let Operation Migration get an exemption to its rule about ultralight aircraft pilots getting paid.

Use the Sierra Club’s easy format to tell the FWS what you think

Attend the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hackmatack public meetings on:

• Tuesday, April 3, 5-8 PM, Lost Valley Visitor Center, Glacial Park, off Rt. 31 north of Ringwood, IL
• Wednesday, April 4, 5-8 PM, Brookwood Middle School, 1020 Hunter’s Ridge Drive, Genoa City, WI

SEE ANIMALS IN CHICAGOLAND

Hummingbird at American Museum of Natural History by By Ed Gaillard

Since December a rufous hummingbird has been hanging around the Museum of Natural History on Central Park in Manhattan, becoming a subject of fascination and fear of New York birders. Sure this delicate little bird would die, birders debated a rescue. But this bird seems to have weathered the mild winter. Now hummingbirds are flying into their northern breeding grounds a month, sometimes two, ahead of schedule.

In just the last week ruby-throated hummingbirds shown up in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ontario. Normally they’d just be flying through South Carolina and Oklahoma. Twenty two states got their first reported hummingbirds in March this year (as of March 24). They’re two months early for far northern locales like the parts of Ontario, New Hampshire, New York on the Canadian border and central Wisconsin. They don’t usually reach those locales until May.

The AMNH Rufous (as it’s known) wasn’t even the only one that overwintered in the north. Even though all hummingbirds are fragile, this species is known as kind of bold and bullying at the feeders. eBird shows rufous hummingbirds spending January across the north: Youngstown, OH; Pittsburgh; Oak Park, IL; Grand Rapids; Youngstown; Dinwiddle, VA  and Bennington, VT.

We’ve long known changing climates have changed the migration schedules by a week or two. But to have species off by a month or two in one year is truly stunning. We can’t know if the birds stayed around because they somehow sensed it would be a mild winter, have learned to depend on feeders or if these were individuals that didn’t have the wherewithal for the long trip and just lucked out. The males tend to lead the migration so they can stake out a good territory. Maybe the longer season will mean more hummingbirds have a chance to raise a second brood this year.

If you normally offer hummingbirds feeders or nectary flowers when it gets hot, you better just put out the spread now. Those little travelers will be hungry.

Check out hummingbird.net’s very cool advice on attracting hummingbirds and using feeders

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

SEE ANIMALS IN THE NORTHEAST (NY, NJ, MD, MA, ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, PA)

The dates when the Ruby Throated Hummingbird First Sightings

This year's first sightings

The Southeast Environmental Task Force has been fighting the shooting range since it was announced in 2010 because it would further mess up an area that is supposed to be part of President Obama’s Great Outdoors initiative and the Calumet Open Space Reserve. But nobody cared when they were talking about a blue heron roost, the glory of the Hegewisch Marsh, the breeding ground for Yellow-headed blackbirds (which are endangered in IL) or the fragmentation of open spaces.

“The bald eagle basically saved the situation,” says Peggy Salazar of the  SETF. “All of our arguments prior to that got us nowhere. The bald eagle was very serendipitous.”

The Chicago Police Department decided they’d continue using a range in Aurora rather than contend with getting a permit to disrupt a bald eagle nest. Bald eagles aren’t officially endangered anymore. In fact, they’re a huge environmental success story and animal tourists can see them at eagle watching festivals around the country. But the Fish and Wildlife Service does need to issue a permit for bald eagles specifically and for migratory birds in general.

Really, even though the nest makes it tricky, I think the cops would have gotten it. But I also think Chicago has a soft spot for having a pair of nesting bald eagles within the city. Can you imagine the field trip and web cam possibilities?

Chicago and the bald eagles almost missed their chance to get together. The protests delayed building the site. Since the site is currently a fenced off old wastewater treatment plant, nobody would have known about the bald eagles. But SETF arranged a tour of the area with a local reporter and an Audubon birding expert, Carolyn Marsh. She spotted the hulking nest, which is about as big as a smartcar, and knew what it was. Game over for the shooting range.

Right now you can’t get in to see the nest. But SETF may offer a birding tour come May. And you can try visiting the nearby Hegewisch Marsh or Beaubien Preserve’s Flatfoot Lake, the Thomas O’Brien Lock and try to see them fly. Birders have seen bald eagles hanging around this part of the Calumet River for years, ebird.org shows. Salazar says that another pair may be trying to nest just on the Indiana side of Wolf Lake, seen Whiting’s Forsythe Park. (You can try the William W. Powers state rec area if you don’t want to cross over to the Hoosier side; birders have seen them there, too.

Where to SEE EAGLES

SEE ANIMALS IN THE MIDWEST (IL, IA, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)

SEE ANIMALS IN CHICAGOLAND

Whooping Cranes at the their new home in AL

Weather, obscure FAA regulations and bird preference have conspired to make Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge the winter home to about a dozen endangered whooping cranes this year–and maybe for their lifetime. Nine whooping crane chicks–raised in Wisconsin by humans in bird costumes and led down south by an Operation Migration ultralight–ended up stopping near the refugeon January 5 to settle a dispute over FAA rules. Operation Migration got a waiver within a week, but then weather delayed the trip, a couple of the birds wanted to change direction. Eventually biologists gave up crated the birds and brought them to Wheeler, which a few other cranes had found three years ago.

Since they never made it to Chassahowitzka NWR in Florida they may think of Wheeler as their winter home. Joe Duff, one of Operation Migration’s co-founders, says that he suspects they’re go back and forth between Wisconsin and Alabama, but you can never tell. Whooping cranes (Grus americana) pair off about age 3, then mate at 5, usually in the male’s territory. The class started out with 10 birds, but now has five males and four females. Another four birds, including two raised in Wisconsin and released up there to learn to fly with adult birds, were already at the refuge.

Staying in Alabama throws off the plan to get the cranes to re-establish an old migration route down to Florida.  “Once we get past the short-lived self pity and look objectively at the situation, we see that it doesn’t matter much that we didn’t make it all the way to Florida. The birds will still migrate north. They may need a little assistance but they will still be a part of the population,” Duff wrote on the operation’s blog.

The only passengers on the Operation Migration ultralights.

But, it’s not the first time the cranes have messed up human plans to help them. Some birds just decide to stop over before Florida. And this year’s warmer weather seems to have really left them uninspired to make the long trip. More migrating whoopers wintered in Indiana than Florida. Two of the birds in the class of 2011 tried to revolt against their ultralight mother. They tried to turn the group north and nipped at the ultralight when the pilot tried to retake the lead of the formation.

Duff wanted to stress that the FAA wasn’t to blame for their delay or unexpected home. “They didn’t ground us, we grounded ourselves,” he said.

The agency was just investigating the complaint of a former worker. In 2008 the agency started enforcing rules that ultralight pilots couldn’t be paid. After a complain last summer, the group and FAA agreed that they met the requirements because flying is a small part of the work done by the bird trainers. Plus, the rule was meant to protect the public from dodgy carnival rides; the only passengers on the ultralights are stuffed animals from Disney (a sponsor). But a new complaint from the same former worker left the FAA wondering. So, Operation Migration stopped their work until they got everything cleared up.

The group got a temporary waiver and hopes to work out a permanent one.

Wheeler has a viewing area and lots of other migratory birds. (Including sandhill cranes, which could be a problem since hunters are allowed to shoot the gray sandhill cranes but not the white whoopers.)

In recent years Texas and Louisiana tangled over where a new, non-migratory population would live; the birds just moved to Louisiana. But the birds themselves (along with the migration specialists) may have just made Alabama is a new site to see them.

Check out the 16th Annual Whooping Crane Festival in Texas this coming weekend

Help Out Operation Migration

The history of hunters shooting whooping cranes

Where to SEE WEIRD BIRDS (All the interesting birds: pelicans, puffins, prairie chickens, vultures, hummingbirds)

Operation Migration likes to keep the public involved–as long as they don’t bother the birds. This year they found a new spot for birders to see the crew take off in Piatt County, IL. Here’s how the blog describes it: “The new flyover viewing site is on 1000N about 500 yards east of where it intersects with 300E.Directions: South on #32 from the town of Cisco; turn left/east onto 950N; at the ‘T’ in the road turn left/north onto 300 East, then turn right/east onto 1000 north. After about 500 yards there is a little rise in the road that will offer a bit of an elevated view.”

Courtesy of Journey North, which tracks all kinds of migrations

Tigers shot dead

Both Esquire and GQ came out with big stories this week on the horrible Zanesville zoo incident four months ago. Exotic animal hoarder Terry Thompson killed himself just after unleashing about 50 large predators on exurban Ohio on October 18, 2011. To Esquire, it’s a gory action-adventure movie (they even released a movie trailer). GQ’s Chris Heath actually bothers to try to figure out how it happened, which makes his story a lot more interesting.

The Observer chronicled how both reporters stayed at the same hotel and the magazines jockeyed to make a splash. The most incredible part of the dueling stories is that it’s a silly but standard practice for monthly magazines to kill a feature if they know a rival is covering the same topic. Editors don’t want the public (or, more importantly, their peers) to think they are using ideas from each other (not  possible, given the lead time) or just doing the obvious.

I’m glad GQ still went ahead because their piece is so much more nuanced and haunting.

Not that I wasn’t gripped by Esquire’s story, which treats the incident like a rollicking horror film. Lots of gore and men pissing, swearing and doing what they had no choice to do. You learn minute by minute how the cops shot the tigers, lions and bears, but get no sense of how the animals or their suicidal owner got to this point. Writer Chris Jones employs the dopey animal rights strawman to provide the only conflict. At one point the cops see “several” lions in open cages and bravely risk attack to lock the cages so they don’t have to shoot them. But then one cat slips out a hole and the suddenly realize all the cages have holes. Since no lion survived, it’s clear the cops shot the other (mostly) caged animals, but the details are skipped. That’s the conversation I want to hear.

Chris Heath not only covered the minutia of the animal slaughter, but also at least tried to figure out why it happened. Heath looked at the absurd lack of laws about owning dangerous predators, the economics of exotic ownership (cubs can be purchased for a few hundred bucks, but nobody wants to buy an adult, which are dangerous and expensive to keep). And he goes a lot further into figuring out Thompson, whom friends say changed after fighting in Vietnam and had received an anonymous letter the day before saying his wife had been cheating on him. Even thought it’s a whopper of a story, I could have read more from Heath, like how did Thompson and his wife get the money to buy and feed all these animals in the first place. (His wife claimed she spent $30,000 on the macaques and Heath calculates the animals would have needed 600 pounds of meat a day).

Heath also explores one of the odder mysteries of the case: how and why did Thompson cut open all the cages and not get attacked till after he shot himself. The exotic animal owners point to conspiracies involving animal rights activists. But, it may raise doubts about whether the quick carnage was totally necessary. Were the cats, which Health discovered were declawed, going to rush out to eat people? These animals could never have been released to the wild precisely because they wouldn’t have known how to hunt.

Jones lets the cops describe the typical animal lover’s critique as everybody just thinks they were a bunch of rednecks. I’m an animal person and I don’t think so. They did what they thought was right when they were faced with a group of unpredictable animals that should never have been in suburban Ohio. The cops made decisions under extreme pressure and you can always look back and wonder if something could have been done better. Since the incident, has anybody come up with a plan for the next exotic animal collection gone wild? Could they lure the hungry predators to a pile of drugged meat? The assumption is that this will never happen again. Yet we’ve got a country full of backyard exotic predators,  owned by people who feel embattled and under financial stress. We didn’t think Columbine was going to keep happening, but it does. The scariest part of the story is that it could happen again.

SEE ANIMALS IN THE MIDWEST (IL, IA, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)

Where to see BEAR or BIG CATS not in somebody’s yard

ebird snowy owl sightings for January, 2012

Snowy owl stands on Wisconsin brush, by Bely Medved

The northern half of the country has gone snowy owl crazy. An enormous generation of the spooky white birds has migrated as far south as Oklahoma looking for food to replace the temporary boom of lemmings they were raised on. To see if one is spotted near you, check out the eBird sightings because they’re showing up at airports and downtown waterfronts everywhere.

Owl watchers tend to live by a Mason-like code. They won’t tell you exactly where their owl. They fear a crowd will annoy the bird or some idiot might shoot it. But, they may tell you the general area if you talk to a serious birder in person. If you don’t know any, join eBird, the birding site run by Cornell and the National Audubon Society that lets citizen scientists track and map each species.

You sign on (for free) and look for snowy Owl–known formally as Bubo scandiacus and informally as Harry Potter’s Hedgwig–near you. Sort by this year only to see the recent sightings. You won’t get that precise of a location because of the code. The key thing to remember with a spectacular bird like a snowy owl is that you don’t have to be a good enough birder to spot the owl. You just have to be observant enough to spot the people watching the owl. And persistent enough to show up.

Unlike many North American owls, snowy owls hunt in the daytime. Many of the sightings have been mid-afternoon. ince the owls down here are desperate for food, they may be willing to hunt outside normal business hours and eat just about anything–mice, ducks, fish, roadkill. Still, dusk and dawn, the animal rushhour, is a great time to look. These birds prefer open meadows to forests, so that make it a bit easier, too.

Here are some of the highlights of snowy owl watching from around the country:

Boston: Boston birders can go on several organized owl watches, including one MassAudubon holds this weekend at Duxbury Beach. eBird also shows a one at Logan Airport and one in Sommerville

Chicago: Montrose Dunes of Lincoln Park, right on the waterfront.

Denver: The airport is the hotspot–as well as the area of Harvest Road and Barr Lake State Park north of there.

Milwaukee: In the morning people have been seeing a snowy owl on the downtown South Shore, especially the yacht club.

New York:  Jones Beach and Fire Island (especially Shinnecock County Park) are the closest to the city this month. But in November Gothamist reported one seen near the Verazzano Narrows Bridge.

Ohio : A dozen birds have been seen around the state, but one in the exurbs of Columbus starved to death, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Oregon: Salishan Spit, about 30 miles northwest of Eugene, is the farthest south one appears on the West Coast this year.

Philadelphia: Snowy owls are hanging around between the runways at Northeast Philadelphia Airport–not the big international one.

Where to SEE HAWKS, OWLS & OTHER RAPTORS

Where to SEE EAGLES

SEE ANIMALS IN THE MIDWEST (IL, IA, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)