Snowy Owls
Bubo scandiacus

DeKalb and LaSalle Counties, IL
8 February 2009

John Purcell and I tracked down the four Snowy Owls that had been previously located in northern Illinois.

The first owl was just north of the DeKalb/LaSalle county line , east of Rte. 23. We located it by spotting Darrell Shambaugh in his car by the side of the road. When we pulled up Darrell said, "Are you looking for the Snowy Owl? It's up there." He pointed to the top of the house across the street from him.

 

The second owl was in LaSalle County, southeast of Starved Rock State Park. We passed through the area where it had been seen (basically along E 1125 near N 2300) and didn't see it, but when we passed through a second time the bird had taken up a perch atop a red barn.

Here is a closer view of this owl.

 

The other two Snowies were in the fields south of the Exelon power plant on the east side of LaSalle County. The first of these was resting right between the rails of the unused north/south railroad tracks between N 19th and N 18th, just east of E 26th.

While we were looking at this owl, some folks from Morris, IL drove up and told us of the other owl, which was visible (though distantly) from where we were standing. This fourth owl was on the west side of E 26th about 0.4 miles south of N 19th, which is where we got a closer look. In the first image below you can see the tall base of one of the wind turbines that now populate the area.

Here's this same owl, perched on the same post.

 

This page was last updated on 9 February 2009.
Contact Geoff Williamson with any comments, updates or suggestions.