Newton’s 2024 migration from southern Ontario to the northern Ungava Peninsula and back. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

Newton was at least five years old when he was banded and tagged in January 2023.

We have our first returning owl of the 2024-25 season, and an update for you on one that — at least so far — has remained out of cell range, but not entirely off the grid.

On Dec. 5 we received our first data transmission from Newton, an adult male that was tagged in January 2023 near Newton, Ontario, by Charlotte England and Malcolm Wilson, and who spent last winter near near Lake Timiskaming along to the Québec border, departing March 27. Interestingly, that’s pretty much exactly where he checked on his way back south this time, and we wondered if he was going to settle down there again for the winter. Instead, he quickly moved farther south onto the Bruce Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, where he remained through his most recent transmission on Dec. 12.

When he got back in cell range for the first time, Newton’s transmitter sent us all of his backlogged data since the end of March, so we can reconstruct his movements over the past eight and a half months. From Lake Timiskaming he flew rapidly north, reaching the southern end of James Bay in two days, then loafed on the east side of Hannah Bay for about two weeks. (Perhaps not by coincidence, this area is part of the Hannah Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary.)

From there, Newton made another very quick, sustained flight up the east coast of James Bay, then out into Hudson Bay, over the Belcher Islands and back to land — a 384-km (239-mile) flight in almost exactly 24 hours, with just a few rest stops along the way, which is unusual for a snowy owl; they tend to be more, shall we say, leisurely fliers.

While it may count as modern art, Newton’s summer tracks do not indicate that he settled down and provisioned a nest anywhere this past summer. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

From there Newton headed another 455 km (282 miles) up into the northern Ungava Peninsula, arriving by the beginning of May. After which he…ambled a bit, meandering up to the edge of Hudson Strait, then looping south and west, never settling in one spot as we’d expect if he set up a territory and found a mate. Between June and August, he moved around an area of almost 46 sq. km (18 sq. miles), which while not enormous is much larger than he would be using if he’d been guarding and provisioning a nest.

By September, as the subarctic winter was coming on, Newton began moving much more widely, and on Halloween, Oct. 31, he started flying south. On Nov. 17 he was 72 km (42 miles) from the mouth of James Bay when his transmitter went into hibernation because the extremely short days and low sun angle at that latitude didn’t provide enough solar recharge. But by Nov. 29 he was again at the southern end of James Bay, where there was just enough sun to bring the battery back to life and resume recording GPS data.

Newton’s most recent tracks down through eastern Ontario to the Bruce Peninsula. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

They show Newton hooked west and a bit north around the bottom of the bay before turning south through the boreal forest of eastern Ontario. He followed the Trans-Canada Highway near Kapuskasing, Kitigan and Moonbean, ON, likely because the small towns and old logging cuts there provided some open ground amid all the trees, then completed his movement down to the Bruce Peninsula in a few more days.

Newton’s map has been updated with all of his 2024 data, though as usual (and as with all our maps) each new update is delayed 24 hours to provide the owl with some security from overly enthusiastic humans who might try intrude on their solitude.

Otter’s movements in April 2024 from his wintering grounds on southern James Bay to near Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaajuk) in Nunavut.(©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

Otter, his satellite antenna just peeking out above his wings, enjoys a blue-sky day in upstate New York the winter he was tagged. (©Margy Meath)

The other owl whose summer movements we know is Otter, at this point the owl we’ve been tracking the longest, originally tagged almost six years ago by Tom McDonald in upstate New York. Otter is the only owl in our project that carries a hybrid transmitter that records GPS data, sent via the cell network, as most of ours do, but also has a satellite transmitter that connects once a week with the Argos satellite system from March through September. (Throughout the year, regardless of location, the GPS/GSM side of the system collects and stores hourly GPS locations, but we can’t get those unless Otter is in cell range.)

That system works as intended, but when we programmed the Argos unit, we assumed Otter would be down south each winter where there is cell service. Silly us; twice now he has confounded our expectations by remaining north all winter, once staying in the Torngat Mountains of Labrador the winter of 2020-21, and last winter by remaining up on James Bay near Fort Albany. The last time we’ve gotten full GPS data from him was April 2023 before he left that winter’s territory south of Ottawa, Ontario.

Otter’s movements in May 2024, from the bottom of Boothia Bay to the eastern edge of the Melville Peninsula. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

But we can see, once a week, where he is from March 1 to Sept. 30, thanks to the satellite side of his dual transmitter. In summer 2023, he was on southern Baffin Island, where he did not appear to have nested. This year he left southern James Bay in early April, and was just halfway up the west coast of the bay April 22. A week later, though, he was more than 1,200 km (770 miles) farther north and west near the community of Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaajuk) in Nunavut. A week further on, May 6, he was another 530 km (330 miles) north near the hamlet of Kugaaruk on Boothia Bay, but then flew almost due east for 380 km (236 miles) so that by May 13 he was on the Melville Peninsula overlooking Foxe Basin, with Baffin Island to the north.

Something about the area appealed, because after a final short flight north 40 km (30 miles), Otter settled down. Maybe it was an abundance of food, for unlike Newton, from the end of May through August Otter hardly stirred out of a very small activity area, just 85 hectares (about 210 acres). Though we can’t be positive, that almost certainly means he was tending a mate and a nest.

Talk about a homebody. Otter barely budged out of a just 85-ha (210-acre) territory all summer. The snow is simply a reflection of the fact that the Google Earth image at that scale resolution was taken in winter — not that he was nesting in a blizzard last summer. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)

Otter didn’t start to move again until the beginning of September, and frankly, he still hadn’t moved much by Sept. 30, the last date his Argos satellite transmitter was programmed to send data. So, we don’t know where he is right now — and yes, that’s frustrating. A couple winters ago our colleagues at CTT, which made the hybrid transmitter, tried a sending the Argos system a new year-round duty cycle, but the transmitter started glitching and rather than risk losing contact with Otter entirely, they switched it back.

That means we’re all hoping, very, very much, that Otter comes far enough south this winter to reenter cell range, at which point we ought to get his full two years’ worth of backlogged data, as happened after he skipped a winter four years ago. Fingers crossed, everyone! (Because the Argos satellite data uses a separate platform from the GSM data, we can’t display it on Otter’s interactive online map, which is current only through April 2023.)

Otter’s movements, such as they are, in September 2024 before his satellite transmitter went off for the winter. (©Project SNOWstorm and Google Earth)