Last week I had the pleasure of speaking about Project SNOWstorm at the annual banquet of the Appalachian Audubon Society in central Pennsylvania — and also the treat of enjoying a SNOWstorm-themed cake for dessert! The confection featured the artwork of SNOWstorm’s own Lauren Gilpatrick from the Biodiversity Research Institute in Maine — she’s the one who creates the cool … Read More
Loop the Loop
Here in the Northeast, after a wet and cold start to May the weather suddenly feels as though it’s been borrowed from summer — yet one of the owls of winter is still hanging around. The question, though, is for how much longer. Oswego, the young female tagged in January by Tom McDonald in Oswego, New York, is the only … Read More
SNOWstorm’s co-founder receives prestigious recognition
I knew posting the following memo on SNOWstorm’s blog was going to be a challenge. The reason for this is that it honors one of SNOWstorm’s leaders and founders, Scott Weidensaul, who happens to be one of the most humble and respectful people I know. However, among our extended SNOWstorm team of collaborators, we all felt the following news had … Read More
And Then There Was One
It’s been a while since we’ve posted an update, which doesn’t mean nothing’s been happening on the snowy owl front — just that we’ve all been incredibly busy. (SNOWstorm is our passion, but it isn’t anyone’s day job, and sometimes work gets in the way.) But the fact is that the winter season is winding down, and one by one, … Read More
Through the North Woods
We’ve seen some big movements within the past week, and only one tagged owl (that we know of) remains on its wintering grounds. That one is Oswego, who is still hanging out on little Bass Island in eastern Lake Ontario, with occasional side trips to the mainland and even tinier Gull Island — this last a state wildlife management area with nesting … Read More
On and Off the Grid
More and more snowies are moving north, dropping out of cell range for the summer — but we were pleased to get a big data dump from Oswego, who had been AWOL for the past month. Oswego, you’ll recall, had slipped off our radar at the beginning of March, after her transmitter showed a curious lack of solar recharge. Unsure … Read More
Oh, Canada!
Due to a glitch, this update scheduled for Tuesday April 4 didn’t post — sorry for the delay, and we’ll have a further update on the latest movements of the owls in another day or so. The Project SNOWstorm team ——————— It’s definitely spring, and robins and geese aren’t the only birds making serious tracks to the north. After … Read More
Chickatawbut Chows Down
One of the coolest aspects of Project SNOWstorm’s tracking has been documenting the extent to which some snowy owls hunt waterbirds over open water, a practice long recognized by snowy owl researchers like SNOWstorm co-founder Norman Smith, but rarely quantified in any way until now. Readers here will recall that earlier this month, Norman tagged Chickatawbut, a juvenile female owl … Read More
Congratulations to Lauren Gilpatrick
For the past several years, biologist Lauren Gilpatrick at the Biodiversity Research Institute in Maine has been a great partner here at Project SNOWstorm — not just working with her colleagues in the field to get Maine snowy owls tagged and tracked, but lending her artistic skills to the cause by donating her exceedingly cool Burly Bird snowy owl stickers … Read More
Weekly Update: Loop-d-loops
A fairly quiet report this week, although several of our birds continue to show signs of seasonal wanderlust, with several of them making looping rambles that wound up where they started. Running down the roster from east to west, Wells remains in southern Quebec along the St. Lawrence River. After spending much of last week near the town of Saint-Henri, … Read More