Atwood’s current movement data (purple) and that from March 2025 just before she migrated north (green) show how faithful she is being to her traditional winter territory in southwestern Ontario. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)
As those of you who live in the northeastern U.S. or eastern Canada already know, it’s been an exceptionally cold and very snowy winter in this part of North America. Here in New Hampshire we experienced the coldest December on record, and the thermometer has only dropped since then. According to Environment Canada, while January featured a brief spell of above-normal warmth, and a few new high temp records, the winter has been one of generally unrelenting cold and deep snow, thanks to a dip in the jet stream (which, it must be said, has left much of western North America mild and, in places, in an extraordinary snow drought).
In the East it’s been lousy weather for people, but much less of a problem if you’re a snowy owl. The three owls we’ve been keeping an eye on seem to have settled in, one of them exhibiting the kind of precise site fidelity that we often see in adult snowies in winter, and which is completely at odds with their summer behavior.
Atwood, who surprised us all by reappearing at the end of January, is back on her traditional territory near Monkton, in southwestern Ontario – and when I say “precise site fidelity,” I mean it, as the overlay above of her current movements in purple, and her last data in green from just before she migrated north in March 2025, clearly shows. I still find it remarkable that an owl that may move thousands of kilometers from one breeding season to the next will come back to exactly the same spot winter after winter.
We saw similar behavior for many years with Wells, a 2017 Maine-tagged adult female whose summer wanderings Dr. Diego Gallego Garciá highlighted in his recent discussion of the summer-movement analysis he’s doing. Some summers she would be in northern Québec, the next year far to the northwest in the central Canadian Arctic. Yet every winter she returned to Québec City, using a large agricultural area near the historic Sisters of Charity of Québec convent.
Similarly, when the transmitter on a male owl nicknamed Baltimore failed at the end of 2016 because of a software glitch, we were able to maintain visual track of him for the next two winters because he kept returning to the same small area near Arnprior, ON. That allowed us, after multiple attempts, to retrap him in February 2018 and remove the dead device.
Hochelaga’s recent movements just south of Mercer, QC. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)
The other two owls we’re tracking this winter are both in southern Québec, about 50 km (32 miles) apart – Hochelaga, the adult male who is back this winter after 22 months off the grid, and Embléme, the first-winter female relocated in January from the Montréal airport.
Hochelaga has a history of wintering around and on the airport, and did so initially, but he moved across the St. Lawrence and lately has seemed to be content to stay in farmland south of Mercier.
Emblème has settled in along the Trans-Canada Highway, which is still a better choice than a busy international airport. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)
Emblème, like a lot of relocated owls, moved around a bit following her release, but lately has been very predictable along the Trans-Canada Highway just west of Beloeil. Highways are risky, but not as much so as airports, and we’ll be fine if she stays put.
9 Comments on “A Quick, Frigid Update”
It’s good to know that the three snowies are staying in their same areas, thanks Scott! Ah, Baltimore, we wonder where he is now. And no kidding about the drop in temperatures in Eastern Ontario!!!
We’ve had 20 days below 32 degrees here in Michigan too. So, maybe those wintering sites have a more consistent prey source than the Arctic breeding sites?
It’s always a thrill to find out about the whereabouts of these beautiful birds! I just have one comment: the name Emblème has an “acccent grave” on the second “E”!
Lise, if there’s a way to produce an accent grave with an English Mac keyboard, please let me know! I haven’t been able to find it.
Here you go, Scott. Hope this comes through without getting garbled:
To produce an accent grave (à, è, ì, ò, ù) on an English Mac keyboard, hold **Option + ** (the grave/tilde key next to 1), release them, and then type the letter. For capital letters, use the same sequence while holding the Shift key (e.g., Option + , then Shift + E for È).
Quickest Method (Accented Character): Press **Option + ** then the letter (e.g., Option + ` + e` = è).
Alternative (Accent Menu): Press and hold the letter key (e.g., ‘a’) until a menu appears with options, then select the number or letter for the accent grave (à).
Thanks — I was basically fumbling a step, trying to hit option, grave/tilde key and the letter at the same time, which only produced the accent mark. Now I can fix Emblème’s name throughout.
anyone seeing Snowy owls in Southern Maine?
There have been snowies reported this winter on eBird from Cape Elizabeth down to Scarborough, though a quick perusal this morning didn’t show any reports since about Feb. 3.
There were Snowies seen on our annual fund raising trip for Project SNOWstorm, and also Long-eared and Hawk Owls, and others. The trip raised $1354.00 or 9% of Project SNOWstorm’s goal for 2027! Thank you to all who have joined us in supporting Project SNOWstorm for the last three years! You can read about this year’s trip, How We Found Wintering Owls and Others in Minnesota’s Wonderland, the Sax-Zim Bog. https://www.destinationwildlife.com/blog/minnesota-in-winter-owls-birds
Going to Minnesota this January, when it was making headlines for all the wrong reason may have seemed odd, but the trip was scheduled a year in advance, and the itinerary took our guests away from any possible trouble. The truth about conservation worldwide is not pretty, “If it pays, it stays.” Bird watching brings much-needed income to communities all over the world – including Minnesota. If we want to keep our protected habitats, we must visit them – responsibly. And that means, staying in local accommodations, eating in local restaurants, employing local guides – and of course, respecting the land and property. And that is what we do.
Keep traveling for the birds. Keep supporting the vital work of organizations like Project SNOWstorm. Together, we are the hope for the environment, the birds, and the Earth,