Wichita ? Snowy owls have been wandering south into Kansas.

The Wichita Eagle reports that so far, eight snowy owls have been documented this winter in Kansas. A normal year may garner one or two reported sightings.

Mark Robbins, at the Kansas University Biodiversity Institute, says the snowy owls in Kansas are likely part of a movement out of the Arctic. Robbins says the movement happens every few years, but this year it may be a little bigger than normal. He says the rodents the owls feed on in the Arctic go through up and down cycles in their production. When the owls have nothing to feed on, they head south.

He says the ones that arrive in Kansas are often exhausted and starving. Two have died.