An unusual number of snowy owls have been spotted in the northern U.S. this year and have been setting up winter residence at airports, fields and beaches far south of their normal range.
According to eBIRD , the snowy owl invasions are thought to occur because of variations in cyclical prey and predator populations in the Arctic, but the exact dynamics still leave many questions.
Chris Wood, a researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the project leader for eBIRD , tells the New York Times that this year's migration was "unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetime in the Eastern United States."