Rarely seen owl has birders a-twitter

The residents of Sundance, a housing development on the southeast end of Bend, are being inundated with birders who are looking for a beautiful Northern Hawk Owl that has come to visit Oregon.

Hawk Owls are from the Far North -- Canada, Northwest Territory and Alaska -- and they rarely travel this far south.

Consequently, this is only the third sighting of one in Oregon -- so it's no surprise that birders from all over the Northwest are flocking to Sundance to see this rare traveler.

There has been a major movement of boreal (northern) raptors into the Lower 48 this winter, which may be the result of a major decline in prey back home. In 1965, there was a similar influx of Snowy Owls into Oregon.

Your correspondent handled over 200 of them throughout the state, most of which had starved to death.

When perched, the owl resembles a bird hawk (Cooper's especially) and in flight it looks similar to a falcon.

Like almost all owls, it also has a diversified appetite and kills prey larger then itself with ease.

Mice, gophers, snowshoe hares, ground squirrels, lemmings, ptarmigan, small birds and insects are all on the owl's shopping list.

In all probability the owl is staying where it is because of the abundant gopher, vole and mouse population that resulted from the wildfire that burned through Sundance about 10 years ago.

Residents may be glad to see it go, along with the birders.