Ok, I’m still obsessed with seeing a snowy owl this winter, especially since I missed the perfect opportunity when one showed up in Orono four weeks ago. The bird had stationed itself atop somebody’s roof long enough to be photographed. At the time, I felt too overwhelmed with various commitments, and the sickness and eventual loss of a beloved pet, to pay much attention to the event. But numerous reports of the owls throughout Maine leave me hopeful that I’ll have a chance to see one yet.

I’ve always considered the snowy owl to be the symbol of the mysterious Arctic, which, contrary to what many think, is incredibly diverse. The snowy owl is only one of many species that have adapted to the severe cold and harsh conditions of the region. In April, male snowy owls begin defending territories; in May, the female is incubating eggs in temperatures that are still well below freezing and snow covers the ground.

One feature that helps protect the snowy against the cold is its mass. It is one of our largest owls, only exceeded by the great gray owl and matching the great horned owl in size.

Snowies may be very aggressive on their breeding grounds and have been known to inflict serious injuries on humans in defense of their nests. Males provide most of the defense while the female incubates the three to 11 eggs laid in a bare scrape on the ground. Clutch sizes vary with the availability of prey, with lemmings, other mammals such as large hares, geese, and, less frequently, fish being taken.

When lemming populations are abundant, they are the staple in a snowy’s diet. A brood of nine owlets may be fed as many as 1,500 of the small rodents from the time they fledge, at 25 days old, until their full independence up to two months later.

Snowy owls are highly nomadic, selecting both winter and summer territories where prey (primarily lemmings) are abundant. They are also known as irruptive migrants, and may travel far south of their breeding ranges in search of food during the winter. That is what brings them to Maine and more southerly states.

Luckily, the birds are not as aggressive during the non-breeding season, and may appear docile to human observers at this time. They prefer open country such as coastal areas and other locations that resemble the Arctic’s rolling tundra, and will most often perch on fence posts, hummocks of grass, sand dunes, rooftops or boulders -almost never in trees. So far this season, they have been reported in Houlton, Orono, Portland, Wells, Saco, North and South Berwick, Ogunquit, and Scarborough.

So, keep your eyes open for this “ghost of the tundra.” You can report a sighting by calling the Fields Pond Nature Center at 989-2591.

Chris Corio’s column on birds is published each Saturday. Corio, a volunteer at Fields Pond Nature Center in Holden, can be reached at fieldspond@juno.com