Our first two tagged owls, Assateague and Buena Vista, have also been the most problematic. Back in December when we tagged them we were still feeling our way, applying a transmitter technology designed for use on diurnal raptors to a nocturnal owl for the first time. We learned some hard lessons about how to balance data collection, cellular transmission, battery … Read More
Henlopen and Hungerford
The only reason we’ve been able to mount such a full court press of research this winter, taking advantage of the historic snowy owl irruption in the East and Midwest, is public support. Hundreds of individuals have given more than $31,000 through our Indiegogo campaign, and a number of state and regional ornithological organizations have made significant contributions to sponsor … Read More
Duxbury relaxing
Photographer Rick Bowes dropped us a line yesterday with a couple photos of Duxbury, the immature female that Norman Smith relocated Jan. 29 from Logan Airport in Boston to Duxbury Beach, about 30 miles to the south. “After seeing from your data that she was briefly on Duxbury Beach between the bridge and the pavilion building at the same time … Read More
Oh, Canada!
I was going to draw some sappy Valentine metaphor tonight, but the fact is, we feel like kids at Christmas every time the transmitters check in — and tonight in particular. I was relieved to see that Amishtown is staying put in Lancaster County, at least for the moment. He’s wandered around a three-mile-by-three-mile area, but this evening was back … Read More
Amishtown joins the crew
One of the best — and worst — places for snowy owls this winter has been airports. The owls love them probably because they so closely resemble the flat, treeless terrain of the Arctic, but they’re obviously dangerous places, both for the owls and for the planes (and their passengers) that might hit them. We found that out last month, … Read More
Lucky #13
I was really excited to be in charge of trapping snowy owls in Delaware. I needed to place two transmitters sponsored by the Delmarva Ornithological Society, but I just wasn’t having any luck. Several trips, zillions of miles on the car, hundreds of dollars in gas. I visited many places where owls were reliably spotted for days on end to … Read More
The latest updates
Last night eight of our tagged owls checked in. Despite being tired from five fruitless hours trying to catch a snowy owl here in Pennsylvania that we want to tag, I sat up for many hours more going through the latest movement data from our growing cohort of transmittered snowies. The big news is that we added two more owls … Read More
Snowies on Ice
We’ve been waiting to hear from Erie, one of our tagged birds in northwestern Pennsylvania, but I suspect he’s in a place with poor cell reception — the middle of Lake Erie somewhere. Erie’s been especially fun to follow because he’s already made several long voyages, so to speak, on wind-drifted ice sheets on the lake. Last month he spent … Read More
SNOWday Science: Are Snowy Owls Diurnal or Nocturnal?
Use the SNOWstorm Tracker to explore the travels of Snowy Owl “Assateague” for 24 hours along Reed’s Beach, Cape May, New Jersey and draw your own conclusion about whether “Assateague” is diurnal or nocturnal. Red arrows indicate daytime or diurnal movements. Blue arrows indicate nighttime or nocturnal movements. Backgrounder First some definitions. Nocturnal animals are active at night. Diurnal animals are active during … Read More
Meet Project SNOWstorm’s #1 fan!
One of the unexpected surprises for the SNOWstorm team is who has turned out to be our strongest promoters. Carl Wagner is a 9-year-old third grader from Honey Brook, PA. He discovered Operation SNOWstorm with his mom and 2 older brothers. They all got very excited when they learned that Philly’s release site was within 3 miles of their home and … Read More