Forget pina coladas on hot beaches. These snowbirds like binoculars and owls on the frozen Canadian prairie

He could have chosen an all-inclusive resort along a beach somewhere close to the equator, but Montana physician Kishore Karamchandani thought the frozen Canadian prairies at the height of winter would be more attractive to vacationers.

“I got to see a hawk owl in flight, and I like taking pictures of animals and birds doing some behavior,” Karamchandani said after a five-day tour of Manitoba’s hot spots for owls.

“I got some beautiful photos. It was a really fun trip and I recommend people to come here.”

Karamchandani, who is a pulmonary and critical care physician in Montana, was one of about five dozen people registered for the sold-out winter owl tours offered in February and March in Manitoba by Eagle-Eye Tours’ guides.

Often, the company takes people to places where they are more likely to sweat in their brimmed hats and sun-protecting shirts than to catch a cold.

But for the second winter in a row, international birders are flocking to Manitoba during the coldest months in hopes of spying the owls, which survive in a climate too inhospitable to many other birds that migrate south.

“(Owls) are fascinating birds … especially the great gray owl, our provincial bird,” said guide Josh DeWitt, who accompanied Karamchandani and others out of the first tour group.

“The fact that they can survive our winters, (it’s) just awe-inspiring, and has been capturing people’s imagination for as long as humanity has existed.”

Eagle-Eye is offering trips to Belize, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama and other sunny locations with greater biodiversity and more opportunities to see more species this winter.

Those trips also run between $5,500 and $7,700 Cdn. DeWitt says this could be a factor for people who signed up for the comparatively cheaper Manitoba owl tours, which cost $1,900.

But many ecotourists — who this year have come from Australia, Spain, the UK and the US — are motivated to seek out Manitoba owls for other reasons, DeWitt said.

“You get some people who are just intense bird lovers – they have something that’s on their ‘life list’ that they need to see, and this is the place to get it – and other people, it’s just that they want to experience something different,” he said.

Another attraction is the diversity of owl species in Manitoba in winter and the ease of finding them without leaf-covered trees providing cover from elusive rodent predators.

“Owls in Manitoba have a long tradition of attracting people from around the world,” said Jim Duncan, former head of Manitoba’s Fish and Wildlife Branch. “The first international World Owl Conference was held in Winnipeg, and we attracted researchers from all over the world (in 1987).”

He and his wife founded manitoba night owl survey 35 years ago. The citizen science effort enlists volunteers to log sightings and data to be used for conservation science.

Duncan says northern hawk owls and snowy owls are daytime predators and therefore targets of birders in the winter, but they are not the most abundant species in the province.

The most common owl species in Manitoba are the pointy-eared great horned owl and the teacup-sized saw-whet owl – these are not very easy to see as they are most active at night. The same is true for the third most common species, the boreal owl.

That species was found in near-record numbers in Manitoba last winter, Duncan said, and the great gray owl also had a big year.

He said he trapped and banded 60 great grays last winter. Many were near Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg, where in February, DeWitt’s first group failed to catch a glimpse of the bird with its distinctive disc-shaped face. They didn’t even find a boreal owl.

This does not necessarily indicate that those two species are suddenly endangered in Manitoba.

“They go through this boom-bust cycle that is multi-annual. It can be three to five years between peaks,” Duncan said, adding that owl numbers closely mirror the boom-bust cycles of prey such as voles and field mice.

“This is a natural phenomenon that is … part of the natural history of owls.”

When an owl species goes through a boom, it is called an disturbance, Or attack, and it’s “pretty cool,” Duncan said.

Elsewhere in Canada earlier this winter there were real signs pointing to a possible eruption on the horizon.

This winter so far in Manitoba has been “not bad” for snowy owl sightings, Duncan said, with several seen perched on hydro poles and flying quietly over farmers’ fields south and southwest of Winnipeg.

“There are some areas of snowy owls where you might see 10 or more in a day driving down some farm roads,” he said.

“These birds are available to anyone in Manitoba if they want to go on a walk and look for wildlife. It’s like having our own nature show in our own backyard.”

Duncan retired from his government biologist job a few years ago but continues his advocacy work through a social enterprise called Discover Owls. He is working on his fourth Owl book, tentatively titled Owl’s little book.

He also imparted some of his owl knowledge to the tour group last week when he visited them with his wildlife ambassador/roommate, Oska the Great Gray Owl.

Duncan says he only managed to band one northern hawk owl last winter, but on the tour he reports that numbers are increasing, and they can expect to see five to seven owls in the Lac du Bonnet area this winter. He saw five.

Karamchandani, of Montana, said Duncan and Oska’s visit was one of the highlights of his trip to Manitoba. he plans to come back polar bear in churchill this fall.

“A lot of people don’t think about coming to Winnipeg,” said Eagle-Eye’s Devitt. “Our amazing wildlife…may not be as prevalent in the winter, but it’s there and it’s unique, and that’s why people come here.”