By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

CHEYENNE BOTTOMS -- A snowy owl shot last week at Cheyenne Bottoms has died, but conservation officer Brian Hanzlick is hopeful "a few leads" might point him in the direction of the person responsible.

As news of the shooting spread, Kansas birding lists caught fire, detailing the event. Kansas birdwatchers stopped short of condemning hunters, but weren't at all reluctant to demonize whoever is responsible.

Snowy owls, normally denizens of the arctic tundra, have fascinated Kansas birdwatchers this year as more than a hundred of the birds settled in the state for the winter.

Shot Feb. 16 at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Management Area, Hanzlick said the bird died as a result of injuries.

Hanzlick is the Barton County conservation officer for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

"I'm not sure how it was shot," he said, but the bird has been X-rayed and the pellets are visible. "Right now, we've opened up an investigation. We have a few leads, and we'll chase them down."

He declined to say what those leads might be.

He did say the bird was discovered in Pool 2, the area closest to the KDWP&T office, and was picked up by an area resident and taken to the Britt Spaugh Zoo's raptor rehabilitation center in Great Bend.

"Snow goose season is open," Hanzlick said of possible reasons for the shooting. "Did they mistake it for a snow goose?"

But there aren't a lot of snow geese at the wetlands, he said.

"They passed on by," Hanzlick said.

Instead, there are a number of cranes there. "We're getting a lot of migration through."

Kansas birders have been delighted with this year's snowy owl invasion -- last seen of this magnitude in 1974-75. Snowy owls typically inhabit the Arctic tundra, migrating as far south as the United States-Canada border in the winter.

There have been more than 110 sightings reported to the Kansas Ornithological Society, which developed a map showing where the reports came from.

While the map only shows three sightings at Cheyenne Bottoms, Hanzlick said there have been more.

"I think I've seen a total of six at the Bottoms," he said.

Hanzlick is asking anyone with information about the snowy owl shooting to call him at (620) 770-6083.