I received this message from a fellow Feederwatcher in Saskatoon SK in
reply to my posting yesterday relating to Snowy Owls.
John Nelson
Good Thunder MN
Begin forwarded message:
>
> Hi John,
>
> A friend who is a Field Biologist was recently on a work-related
> trip from Saskatoon to the Swift Current area, a distance of about
> 150 miles. In an e-mail he said that where, in a normal year, he'd
> see at least a dozen or more Snowy owls, his total for that return
> trip at this time of year, was 2.
>
> Another friend from Saskatoon, who is a 'Train Driver', (his words),
> for the Canadian National Railway on the Edmonton route, this year
> reports seeing one or two Snowies on his route when he would
> regularly see a dozen or so on his 500 mile return run.
>
> With those two reports in mind, it's going to be interesting to see
> what the upcoming results will be once the tally for the Christmas
> Bird Counts are in the book...
>
> re the BOSS situation: If I'm reading the PFW maps correctly, it
> seems like the numbers of FeederWatchers is significantly down
> across both the States and Canada. That, too, will have an impact on
> the 2011 BOSS crop. However, in talking to a local farmer who did
> grow some BOSS this past season, he said that he had a bumper crop
> of excellent quality. O f course, he had no problem selling it and
> wished he'd planted more than 80 acres. This far north, however,
> BOSS is always an 'iffy' crop. We normally get a killing frost about
> the last quarter of September, keeping in mind that the last of our
> crops is normally planted in early June.
>
> Moe Mareschal
> Birch Hills, SK
> On the farm in the Aspen Woodland zone between the Great Plains and
> the Boreal Forest.
> __
> ( ' <
> / ) )
> // " "
>
>
>
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