Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Winter Ghost

Critters, Reader Contributions

The Snowy Owl is one rare bird.

In my entire life I have only seen this bird twice.   Once as a kid and again a few years ago. 

Breeding range for the Snowy Owl is the real frozen tundra - much closer to the North Pole than around here. Namely Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia.

Unscheduled events known as winter irruptions will periodically result in sightings outside of the owl's typical range.

These events draw Snowy Owls from the circumpolar regions to southern Canada.  From time-to-time these birds may even venture as far south as the northern and midwest United States, the great plains and beyond.

Weather and factors such as fluctuating food sources like lemmings (the Snowy Owl's main prey) are the cause.

SinissippiGal mentioned that she had gotten word through the grapevine that there was a Snowy Owl or two hanging around Fox Lake.  So she grabbed her camera and went to check it out.

She emailed me some amazing photographs - and with her permission they're published here.

I think she struck some wildlife gold with these photos.  Such a stunningly beautiful bird.

Follow this sequence of events.

Raptor

Prey

Launch

Pursuit

Dinner is served

I think these shots of life and death in the wild are among some of the best I've seen.  Kind of like our own local version of National Geographic.

Don't you agree this contributor is deserving of an award or something?

Incredible!

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