You can get a sense for how big and powerful Rudyard is from the span of one spread wing, which shows the mix of old, faded and new, darker flight feathers indicative of an older adult. (©Nova Mackentley)
Normally, the cutoff for tagging new owls for Project SNOWstorm is early to mid-March, since we’re primarily interested in winter movement data, and by late March, many snowies are already starting to head north. Once they get out of southern Canada, the cell network (through which their transmitter send data) thins out very quickly.
On the other hand, sometimes opportunity presents itself and you take what luck brings you. And so it is with Rudyard.
Our longtime collaborators, Nova Mackentley and Chris Neri, are two of the most respected owl banders in North America. They’ve been working for decades on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at Whitefish Point, where they conduct extensive mist-netting operations for migrant owls, notably northern saw-whet, long-eared and boreal owls.
But they also made three trapping trips this winter to search the U.P. for snowy owls, though without any success. Still, when they got a tip that the brother-in-law of a friend had seen nine snowies near the small town of Rudyard – and when the winds last Thursday night, March 26, were too strong to safely open mist nets – they decided to give it one last try.
Because Chris and Nova lead an entirely nocturnal existence during banding season, they headed into the dark – and for those in more southerly climes, please understand that it is still very much the depths of winter up in the U.P., with lots of snow and deep cold. Although they’ve trapped a few snowies after dark, this was the first fully nighttime trapping trip for them.
Driving around, using their headlights to scan utility poles for owls, they eventually spotted one, but it bolted into the darkness. A bit later, though, they came across first one snowy, and then a second, sitting on poles near a home. They dropped their trap, and waited.
“At this point it was near midnight, and there was not a soul around,” Nova emailed me the next day. “The beauty of having no one around was incredible and we were so relaxed. In fact, so relaxed that Chris looked up and said ‘Oh, we got the bird!’ ”
The midnight owl, in the hand. (©Chris Neri)
And what a bird! It was an adult female, and when they weighed her she tipped the scale at 2,699 grams – just a whisker under 6 pounds. But they weren’t sure whether we were OK with tagging an owl so late in the season, so they transferred her to a transport box and brought her home, thawing some mice so she’d have a snack in the morning. Then they called my SNOWstorm colleague Dave Brinker at 1 a.m., waking him from a deep sleep to see what he thought about an end-of-season tagging operation. He gave provisional approval and checked with me the next morning, when we gave them the official thumbs-up.
We’re happy to add this bird to the roster for a couple of reasons. As an older adult (based on wing molt she’s at least four years old, and possibly much older than that) she’s past the dangerous juvenile period that claims so many young birds. We know from tracking experience that many adults show a high degree of site-faithfulness to their wintering spot. And if we needed proof of her survival skills, this owl we’re calling Rudyard is not only the heaviest snowy owl we’ve ever tagged, out of 120 SNOWstorm owls, she is only 25 grams lighter than the heaviest female, of 179 females, that our SNOWstorm colleague Tom McDonald banded in more than 30 years. So we feel pretty comfortable that even if she bolts north soon, we’ll be hearing from her again in the future.
Nova and Chris got her fitted with a transmitter the following day, but it took some help. Harnessing an owl is at least a two-person job, but Rudyard was so big and powerful that two extra sets of hands were needed for the job, one person trading off when the other got tired.
Nova gives Rudyard one final pre-flight check before releasing her in a late-winter snow squall. (©Curt Vogel
By dark Friday night, Rudyard was ready to go back to where she was captured. One of the Whitefish Point volunteers who helped with the transmitter fitting, Alison Vilag, accompanied Nova while Chris stayed back to open nets for that night’s small-owl banding. “It was a classically terrible winter trip to Rudyard with snow squalls every five minutes, whiteouts and a road almost impossible to distinguish due to the full coverage of white,” Nova said. “Luckily the road sides are so built up they acted as little buffers and made the road look like a runway. Finally we released the owl and she flew strongly straight into a 20-mph north wind without a hitch. They are such powerful birds.”
Rudyard has been hanging around her release site, so all looks good. We don’t have a map for her yet, but as soon as CTT is able to set one up I’ll post an update. [UPDATE: That map is now live.]]
In the meantime, I have a favor to ask. Chris and Nova run the Friends of Whitefish Point as a very small nonprofit, raising all the money they need to continue one of the longest-running owl-banding projects in North America. All they get from us is reimbursement for gas money and other incidentals. They have a one-for-one donation challenge match that runs out tomorrow, March 31. Donations are, like those to SNOWstorm, tax-deductible. If you’d like to show some gratitude to them for the sort of dedication to this project that sends them out into a winter midnight to trap snowy owls for us, consider making a gift to keep the rest of their work going. Here is the donation link. Thanks.
29 Comments on “One for the Record Books”
Great report! Love hearing the details of all that is involved in getting transmitters on these amazing creatures.
This was such a treat reading about so late in the season! Thank you Chris,Nova and Alison for helping with the transmitter.
Congratulations Nova & Chris.! And thank you so much for all you do for owls!
Wow!! Fantastic, and such a big girl!
So cool! Great work. It’s great to have you folks with such a passion to do that work.
Such a great story! For once the high winds at Whitefish Point led Chris and Nova to a fine catch. It sounds like this owl is a monster. May she have a great year in the Arctic finding many lemmings, raising a family, and bringing back a story of her travels. People should know that Chris and Nova’s dedication to owls is unmatched. Any support sent their way (Friends of Whitefish Point) is well spent.
You’re so right, Susan. I’ve been in awe of what Nova and Chris have been doing for decades, really pushing the boundaries of what we know about owls and owl migration. And the numbers they’ve banded at Whitefish Point are incredible, including hundreds of long-eared owls, a species about which we still know very little (which is why they’re launching a very cool telemetry project this spring).
That’s a big one for sure! However we did have one that hung around the farm back in the early 70’s for the entire year, The one pictured dwarfed that one, and was at least twice as big, if not three times as big. There was no mistaking the “Great Owl” who loved to tear the cover off baseballs and softballs! There for one year, gone the next and never seen again, I’ll never forget it.
Rudyard’s map is live at https://www.projectsnowstorm.org/snowstorm-owls-winter-2025-26/rudyard/
WHAT A BIRD !!! She seems to be eating VERY well indeed !!!!
So impressive. Thank you for sharing. Beautiful creature.
Big bird! Good catch. Looking forward to following her movements.
How beautiful! Thank you for what you do for God’s creatures.
What a beautiful story, about an incredible owl! Many Thanks to Nova and Chris for all of their care and hard work.
How beautiful! Wish I could donate. Can’t.
Not being able to sleep, I came across this story and am fascinated. Such a beautiful bird; the term “her Majesty” came to mind, she’s so regal. Thank you for sharing. I now have a new pastime, to follow her nap.
This female has molted at least four times, so I would age her 6CY+.
Roar,
Thanks for the expert assessment from Norway! For those who don’t recognize Roar’s name, he’s long been one of the top snowy owl researchers in the world, a valued colleague in the International Snowy Owl Working Group, and the author of many papers on ageing snowy owls.
When I opened up Google and seen this story I know I had to read! Thank you for sharing this story. She is huge! How exciting
Inspiring story, stunning Snowy Owl, amazing team of expert volunteers @ Friends of Whitefish Point (FWP) and a donation on its way today from a Chicago-based migratory bird rescue volunteer of 10 years (to save injured birds colliding with glass-clad high-rise buildings on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront) with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. Onward for our world’s birds!
Kathleen in Evanston, IL
Such a beautiful bird! Thank you for all you do to help preserve these owls. Your work is priceless!! Great job !! :)
Snowy Owl, amazing team of expert volunteers @ Friends of Whitefish Point (FWP) and a donation on its way today from a Chicago-based migratory bird rescue volunteer of 10 years (to save injured birds colliding with glass-clad high-rise buildings on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront) with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. Onward for our world’s birds!
Kathleen in Evanston, IL
Amazing volunteers @ Friends of Whitefish Point (FWP) and a donation on its way today from a Chicago-based migratory bird rescue volunteer of 10 years (we save injured birds colliding with glass-clad high-rise buildings on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront) with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. Onward for our world’s birds!
Amazing story and a donation on its way today from a Chicago-based migratory bird rescue volunteer of 10 years (we save injured migratory birds colliding with glass-clad high-rise buildings on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront) with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. Onward for our world’s birds!
Here in Texas, where everything is bigger, except for owls. That is one giant bird! Beautiful! I hear owls in my neighborhood from time to time. I was at some old fort ruins years ago when something passed right over my head. I looked up in time to see a large owl climbing out of its dive. It landed on top of an old stone chimney. Apparently it was hunting to feed its young. It made several trips out and back, each time carrying a mouse or rat on return trip. It must have been a good hunter because it was only gone a few minutes each time.
I just adore owls, love them with all my heart, this snowy owl is just stunning, even little ground owls are precious, I hope your sight brings in lots of money and many more birds, I salute your organization and hats off to the snowy owls.
Such great work! I try to mimic the local barn owls when ever theyre actively hooting, in hopes of offering a novel experience that they might remember. I would like to think it has had an effect, as I’ve had more owl sightings. Maybe the owls are completely oblivious, but Im fairly certain it’s a choice for them to make themselves visible. I know crows and ravens can be incredibly playful and engaging in their own way, so I figure why not owls?
Anyways, thank for sharing the work y’all are doing, it truly is great to hear these majestic animals have such strong advocates.
Beautiful owl! More than 50 yrs ago I helped care for captive owls & hawks at a Philadelphia natural history museum. We fed them mice we got weekly from a nearby cancer research facility, euthanized & froze. Hearing the reference to thawing a mouse for Rudyard brought back good memories. Thank God for the dedication & enthusiasm of all these owl researchers. God bless them & the wonderful birds as well.
As further proof (if it were needed) that the SNOWstorm community puts their money where their hearts are, you helped Nova and Chris and Friends of Whitefish Point secure (with that challenge match) $17,000 to help fund their work in the coming year. Thank you, and please follow FOWP as they get into the meat of their spring owl-banding season in the coming weeks. And even though the challenge match is past, any donations to Friends of Whitefish Point are tax-deductible and will be put to very good use.