Last weekend, two friends and I made a day trip to the Vancouver area to do a little birdwatching. We on the West Coast are very lucky this year to have a large number of Snowy Owls wintering at Boundary Bay. This is not a yearly event, as Snowy Owls tend to remain in the northern Arctic. However, the owls occasionally venture this far south when their main food source (lemmings, primarily) is scarce in the arctic tundra. This happens every four years or so, as the lemming population cycles through boom and bust phases. This year the Snowies were first sighted in the bay in late November; their last visit to this area in high numbers was about five years ago.