Ohio first snowy owl, The chances are pretty good.

A snowy owl has been spotted in northern Ohio this winter.

Does that mean Cincinnati could see them locally? The chances are pretty good.

Cleveland MetroParks said a snowy owl was sighted Monday in Mecca Township, north of Youngstown and East of Cleveland.

“This snowy owl, found yesterday at Mosquito Lake in Mecca, is the first ‘snowy’ to be found this winter in Ohio. We’re on high alert for Cleveland’s first snowy owl of Winter 2019/2020,” the parks department said.

Dan Marsh, director of education at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, previously told The Enquirer that the possibility of seeing snowy owls in Greater Cincinnati depends on how things are going up north.

“They could push down here easily. It’s not that uncommon, really,” he said.

We’ve had run-ins with the raptors before.

Early in 2018, a snowy owl delighted bird enthusiasts in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky when it visited Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. In late 2017, a snowy owl visiting Cincinnati’s Queensgate train yard was critically injured. It was later euthanized.

The owl’s appearance this far south tends to be cyclical and food driven, Marsh said. The primary diet of snowy owls is lemmings. When food is less abundant, snowy owls, mostly juveniles, travel south to feed.

“They are just trying to stay alive,” he said. “They are not looking to make a territory here,” Marsh said. “As soon as they can, they will go back.”