PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 5, 2023
In most years, the first snowy owls to arrive in Maine come in late November or through December, and will usually remain until around March, when they’ll fly back north to spend the summer on the Arctic tundra. Maine is about as far south as they regularly go. Snowy owls are one of the only birds capable of wintering in the Arctic, but only when food is plentiful. We see more snowy owls when they’ve had successful breeding seasons, and the abundance of owls heading into the arctic winter means that some, usually young ones, need to wander south where there will be less competition for food. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox