This, the first record of Snowy Owl for Co. Kerry, was seen and photographed by Tom Nisbet near the highest point of the island, on 9th June. Unfortunately it hasn't been seen since though there is plenty of room on the island group, and plenty of prey. Snowy Owls can feed on a wide variety of birds and mammals, so the local rabbits and gulls should be very afraid.
Photo 1. Snowy Owl, Great Blasket, 9th June 2019 (Tom Nisbet).
Photo 1. Snowy Owl, Great Blasket, 9th June 2019 (Tom Nisbet).
The same photo again, but cropped in tighter.
Photo 2. Snowy Owl, Great Blasket, 9th June 2019 (Tom Nisbet).
Photo 2. Snowy Owl, Great Blasket, 9th June 2019 (Tom Nisbet).
The same photo again, but cropped in tighter.
Photo 2. Snowy Owl, Great Blasket, 9th June 2019 (Tom Nisbet).
The same photo, again tightly cropped, but there's a lot more information in this one. Here we can see dense black barring especially on the wings and mantle. So a young male, or maybe an adult female? However, ageing and sexing Snowy Owls is pretty tricky unless there is a lot of detail from good close-up photos of wings and tail. See for example this web page, Project Snowstorm HERE :
That website explains; "Ageing Snowy Owls. The only accurate way to differentiate young snowies from adults is by looking for what banders [ringers] call “molt limits,” contrasts between older, more faded flight feathers, and newer, more blackly marked feathers. This can be subtle, and often requires a trained eye. The degree of barring and marking may decrease with age, as most birders assume, but may also remain the same or even darken — there is a great deal of variability."
and...
"Sexing Snowy Owls: Most birders assume that male snowies are whiter than females, and that is generally true. But the overlap in markings between the sexes is great and confusing. In first-year owls, females have more bars than spots on the middle secondaries, where males have more spots than bars. Female snowies generally have three or more bars on the tail, while males generally have three or fewer, although this is not diagnostic. The terminal dark tail band generally extends from edge to edge on females, but stops short of the edge of the feather in males."
So we can't say for sure what age or sex it might be, but most likely a female or young male.
Doesn't really matter though, does it? It's a Snowy Owl, and that should certainly be enough for anyone lucky enough to encounter such a magnificent bird.
