the rigging of the Nova Scotia steamship Ulunda on the edge of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, over from the nearest land. It was captured and later preserved at the Nova Scotia Museum. Surprisingly, some studies have determined that after a high lemming year in North America, a higher percentage of snowy owls were using marine environments rather than inland ones. Irruptive range Large winter irruptions at temperate latitudes are thought to be due to good breeding conditions resulting in more juvenile migrants. These result in irruptions occurring further south than the typical snowy owl range in some years. They have been reported, as well as in all northerly states in the contiguous states, as far south as the Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, nearly all the Gulf Coast of the United States, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, Utah, California and even Hawaii. In January 2009, a snowy owl appeared in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the first reported sighting in the state since 1987. Also notable is the mass southern migration in the winter of 2011/2012, when thousands of snowy owls were spotted in various locations across the United States. This was then followed by an even larger mass southern migration in 2013/2014 with the first snowy owls seen in Florida for decades. The nature of irruptions is less well-documented in Eurasia, in part due to the paucity of this owl in the European side, but accidental occurrence, presumably during irruptions, has been described in the Mediterranean area, France, Crimea, the Caspian part of Iran, Kazakhstan, northern Pakistan, northwestern India, Korea and Japan. Stragglers may too turn up as far south as the Azores and Bermuda. Habitat Snowy owls are one of the best known inhabitants of the open Arctic tundra. Frequently, the earth in snowy owl breeding grounds is covered with mosses, lichens and some rocks. Often the species preferentially occurs in areas with some rising elevation such as hummocks, knolls, ridges, bluffs and rocky outcrops. Some of these rises in the tundra are created by glacial deposits. The ground is usually rather dry in tundra but in some areas of the southern tundra can also be quite marshy. Not infrequently, they will also use areas of varied coastal habitat, often tidal flats, as a breeding site. Breeding sites are usually at low elevations, usually less than above sea level, but when breeding to the south in inland mountains, such as in Norway,