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. > __ > ( ' < > / ) ) > // " " > > > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html