Last evening was a big night — we received updated locations for four of our tagged owls. (Some are on a different check-in schedule, and some are probably having battery issues that prevented them from checking in). We wondered if the reason Erie had been offline for six days was poor recharge on his battery, but last night we found … Read More
Braddock and Cranberry
We wanted to share some photos of the tagging and release of our first two New York owls, Braddock and Cranberry, over the weekend, courtesy of Aaron Winters.
Freedom’s just another word for ‘owl’
On the evening of Jan. 25, Gene Jacobs and I were trapping near Appleton, Wisconsin. The wind was howling and temperature was only around 4F, with wind chill values down around -20F. We found a female owl huddled behind a snow bank, presumably to get out of the wind and blowing snow, and we looked for a spot to set … Read More
One, Two, Three, Four More
It’s been an incredibly productive weekend for SNOWstorm collaborators, and while I have to keep this update short, the big news is that we have four more tagged owls sending us data. In Wisconsin Saturday evening, Gene Jacobs and Mike Lanzone tagged an immature female near Appleton, a bird they nicknamed Freedom for the nearby town. We’ll have the … Read More
Return of the prodigal owl
Assateague’s back, and we couldn’t be happier. You’ll recall that he was the first snowy owl we tagged this winter, back on Dec. 17 on his namesake island in Maryland. He’s also been one of the most exciting to track, moving more than 150 miles in a couple of weeks around Delaware Bay and up the New Jersey … Read More
Erie and Millcreek
What a week. There’s a lot of news to share, all of it good, which will come in a couple of updates. But the biggest development is that earlier this week, Mike Lanzone and Tom McDonald tagged two more snowies in northwestern Pennsylvania at Erie International Airport. But that success only came after two long, frustrating days trying to catch … Read More
How to Make an Owl Researcher’s Heart Stop
Every time we get an upload of data from Philly’s transmitter, which happens every third day, I hold my breath a little until I’m sure he’s still OK. As we’ve pointed out before, living in the middle of one of the nation’s busiest airports, and hunting beside the busiest interstate in the country, is an invitation for trouble. We’ve also … Read More
Airport Food Court
Most people want to get in and out of airports as quickly as possible, but not Philly. Apparently this young male owl, which we tagged on Jan. 9, has found his own food court at Philadelphia International Airport — though it’s not the safest place to hunt. One theory about why airports are so attractive to snowy owls is that, … Read More
Release the maps!
One of our goals for this project was to provide you with updated maps to keep tabs on the Snowy Owls we are tracking. Thanks to Don Crockett, this is now a reality! Don worked with us to build some incredible interactive maps, allowing our fans and supporters to follow each of the owls. Under optimal weather conditions, the owls … Read More
A face only a mother (and a birder and a researcher and well, just about anyone) could love
This snowy irruption erupted as I was making plans to spend some vacation time in Delaware for the New Year. While everyone else was running around with their hair on fire (I’m bald, Scott! no fair!) I was busy ignoring the dozens of daily, sometimes hourly, emails of preparation as this project was pulled together. Instead I was out roaming … Read More