While Emblème (left) made a long flight west this week, Fulgence (right) has always returned to Saint-Hyacinthe, while Hochelaga (that little cluster of locations in the middle) is still hanging out around the Montréal airport. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

The official first day of spring doesn’t come until Friday, March 20 (at 10:46 a.m., to be precise), but some of our snowy owls are already feeling its tug as the days lengthen and the sun climbs higher in the sky.

Pretty much on schedule, we’re seeing some signs of restlessness, as owls that have been home-bodies start pushing outward, making what may be exploratory flights, even if they opt to circle back to where they began.

We’ve seen that with Perth, who made a quick, roughly 24-hour sojourn to the northwest of her territory near West Monkton, Ontario, flying an 80-km (50-mile) loop March 15 and 16, winding up back where she started. (Atwood, who shares that same patch of farmland, didn’t budge.)

Ornithologists use a German word, Zugunruhe, to refer to this seasonal, premigratory itch, something humans noticed as early as the Middle Ages, when caged songbirds would become restless in spring and autumn, especially at dusk, when their bodies were telling them they should be on their way for a night of migration. That may be what has prompted Emblème, over in southern Québec, to up stakes, also on March 15, and over the next two days fly 162 km (101 miles) west, crossing the Ottawa River to near Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, QC, then looping back south across the river March 17 to stop near Lefaivre, QC by March 18.

Fulgence has likewise made several long out-and-back flights since the beginning of March from his base near Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, though as of March 18 he’s returned each time.

 Not everyone is on the move. As with Atwood, Hochelaga hasn’t shown any indication of leaving the Montréal airport – and as an adult male, he’s one I would have expected to get restless especially early. On the other hand, he’s done this so many years that he may just be waiting for the right conditions, then make a rapid flight north.

Otter continues to frustrate us. His transmitter checked in March 12 but did not send any data, possibly because of a poor cell connection. His satellite data, last updated March 9, showed he was still in the vicinity of Radisson in northern Québec, where we suspect cell signals are few and far between.