Snowy owl 3,000 miles from home appears healthy in Southern California neighborhood

In the last two weeks, a female snowy white owl has been living off a diet of rats and gophers, likely hunted on a nearby Navy base and golf course.

The owl, which raptor experts believe is about a year old, has been roosting on rooftops in a Cypress neighborhood about two miles away. Snowy owls are typically found in the vast grasslands and wetlands above the Arctic Circle and it is believed this is the first recorded this far south, prompting bird enthusiasts and others to flock for a glimpse.

So far, the owl had been faring well and is under the watchful eye of officials with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“There is no plan to trap the bird,” said Melissa Borde, a raptor expert and environmental scientist who works for the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and has been monitoring the owl with officials from the state agency and other experts.

It was wildlife experts from the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach that picked up some of the owl’s “pellets” in recent days to find out what the bird has been living on, Borde said. After an owl eats, its digestive system separates out the waste such as bones and fur and “casts” it back up in the form of the pellets.

Debbie McGuire, executive director of the wildlife center, said one sample she collected on Saturday appeared to have a gopher skull packed with fur inside the 3-inch-long pellet.

She also said she found no rocks or pebbles in the owl pellet, a sign the bird is finding enough food.

Wildlife experts first identified the snowy owl on Dec. 26, but some in the neighborhood say they saw it as early as Dec. 12, and there was an unconfirmed report of a big white bird in San Pedro on Nov. 11, leading to speculation the snowy owl might have journeyed to Southern California aboard a ship.

But raptor experts now believe the more likely scenario is the owl flew beyond its traditional breeding and hunting territory and could have been further derailed off its course by recent storms, landing in Cypress by mistake, Borde said.

“This is the first-ever record of a snowy owl in Southern California,” Borde said, noting the hundreds of birders, wildlife enthusiasts and curious people who have been drawn to the half-square mile where its been perching on rooftops. “If you have a rare snowy owl, it brings the world together. It’s big and white, has striking eyes, and is one of the most majestic animals in the world.”

Snowy owls are considered nomadic and, in the past, have traveled into Montana, the Dakotas and New York, according to a study known as Project Snow Storm, said Stephen Lewis, a raptor biologist for the Division of Migratory Bird Management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska. They typically follow their favorite food source, lemmings, which are a small rodent found in the arctic tundra.

In fact, they are so nomadic it led to experts miscounting how many of the species actually exist. Twenty years ago, it was believed there were 100,000, but recently it has been downgraded to about 14,000 pairs worldwide because the same birds were counted multiple times as they moved, Lewis said.

“A bird coming to California is pretty far and strange,” Lewis said. “Urban settings are not their thing. All the people, they’re not used to that.”

Wildlife officials want people trying to see the bird to make sure they remain at least 100 feet from the owl.

Other dangers the owl could encounter are cars and power lines.

“They don’t understand cars,” Lewis said. “They hear very well, but they don’t see well at night. If the small mammal runs out in the light and gets lit up, there it is in the light and they can see it.  You often see owls out in the road because they’ve gone after something in the light.”

So far, McGuire noted no rodenticide has been found in the animal remains in the collected owl pellets, a concern Lewis and Borde shared given the urban setting. McGuire said the folks at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach are good about protecting its raptor population.

While base officials say they have not seen the owl, they said because of the base’s proximity to a national wildlife refuge and the large raptor population already there, they “dramatically limit the use of rodenticides” in pest control.

Other dangers could be avian influenza – McGuire has recently seen sickened birds in the area – and other larger raptors in residence.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if a bald eagle took a swipe at it,” Lewis said.

The large owls don’t have a lot of predators but if it “looks ill or flies funny” an eagle could see an opportunity, Lewis said. “They steal food and are always on the watch if they see something sick.”

Officials have seen some Cooper’s hawks and crows dive bombing the owl, but Borde said the bird “held her ground.”

Barbie Rodermund, who got to see the owl when it landed on her neighbor’s roof on Dec. 28, has been keeping tabs on the bird’s whereabouts and welcomes the excitement in her Cypress neighborhood.

Rodermund said she first got a taste of the interest in seeing the bird when her husband, dressed in pajamas, went to let the dogs out and slammed the door shut quickly because a crowd was gathered outside with cameras.

As the days have passed, more people have arrived, including quite a few from far beyond Southern California. Most of the people have been respectful and quiet, Rodermund said. One birder told Rodermund the owl was “her bucket list bird.”

“Sometimes they get talking and are excited about seeing it, but most are protective about the owl,” Rodermund said.

The owl is a federally protected species and ideally should be watched quietly at a distance, officials said. Disturbing the owl in any way, or even taking owl pellets or feathers, is illegal without a wildlife permit, Borde said.

The wildlife agency will continue to monitor the bird through the winter months, should she stay that long, to ensure she is acting in a healthy and unstressed manner. Officials are hopeful that as the weather warms, she will again fly north – it is more than 3,000 miles to her mating and breeding grounds.

“If that owl was not eating,” Borde said, “Or her feathers looked terrible, we would intervene.”

So people can learn more about the snowy owl, Fish and Wildlife officials, along with the Sea and Sage Audubon Society, are planning a community presentation at 7 p.m. on Jan. 19 at  the Cypress Community Center, 5700 Orange Ave.