New Owls

Yul – 2019

Yul is a third-year female snowy owl, trapped Nov. 24, 2019, at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Québec by Falcon Environmental Services, tagged by Rebecca McCabe, and relocated away from the airport for her safety. Her name is the international code for the Montréal airport – YUL. Her transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Montreal – 2019

Montréal is an adult female snowy owl, originally banded Nov. 8, 2018, at Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport by Guy Fitzgerald of Union Québécoise de Réhabilitation des Oiseaux de Proie, color-marked and relocated for her safety. She was retrapped at the airport Nov. 25, 2019 by Falcon Environmental Services, tagged by Rebecca McCabe with a CTT hybrid GSM/Argos transmitter, and again relocated away from the airport. Sadly, she was struck by a vehicle on Dec. 3, 2019, while hunting along a busy highway, and killed. Her transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Medina – 2019

Medina is an adult female snowy owl, trapped Nov. 24, 2019, near Woodworth, ND by Matt Solensky of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Prairie Research Center,and named for the nearby town of Medina. Her transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Pearl – 2019

Pearl is a two-year-old female snowy owl, trapped Nov. 27, 2019, near Woodworth, ND by Matt Solensky of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Prairie Research Center, and named for nearby Pearl Lake. Her transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Coteau – 2019

Coteau is a third-year female that joined Project SNOWstorm on Dec. 22, 2019, when she was tagged near Pearl Lake in western Stutsman County, North Dakota by Matt Solensky. Her transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Redwood – 2020

Redwood is a stunning, all-white adult male tagged Jan. 20, 2020, in Jefferson County, NY, by Tom McDonald. His transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public.

Wolverine – 2020

Wolverine is a adult male first banded at Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) in 2017, and recaptured there Dec. 31, 2019. He was tagged and relocated to central Michigan, but dropped his transmitter a week later. That transmitter (funded by donations to SNOWstorm) was redeployed on Buckeye.

 

Dorval – 2020

Dorval is an adult female at least seven years old, originally banded in Jan. 2017 at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Québec, and trapped there again Jan. 11, 2020, by Falcon Environmental Services. She was fitted with a GPS/GSM transmitter by Rebecca McCabe and relocated to southern Ontario, though she quickly returned to the airport. Dorval’s transmitter was paid for by generous donations from the public.

Buckeye – 2015 & 2020

An adult female, Buckeye was first trapped at Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) in Feb. 2015, fitted with a transmitter by Mark Shieldcastle of Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and relocated to northwestern Ohio. She spent the summer of 2015 on the Boothia Peninsula of northern Nunavut, and the winter of 2015-16 around western Lake Erie, after which her transmitter stopped communicating. Now in her eighth year, Buckeye was retrapped at DTW on Jan. 17, 2020, retagged and released again in northwestern Ohio. Her first transmitter was generously sponsored by Black Swamp Bird Observatory and the Kirtland Bird Club, while her second transmitter was underwritten by donations from the public.

Columbia – 2020

Columbia is an adult female captured in January 2020 near Madison Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary in Arlington, WI, with support from Madison Audubon. She migrated north in April, spending the summer of 2020 on Prince of Wales Island in the central Canadian Arctic before migrating south. She first checked in Nov. 12, 2020, in Manitoba, and then moved to southeastern Saskatchewan.

Simcoe – 2020

Amherst – 2020

Fond du Lac – 2020

Returning Owls

Otter – 2019

Otter is an adult male tagged Jan. 18, 2019, in Jefferson County, NY, not far from Fort Drum, by Tom McDonald. He was the first snowy owl — and one of the first birds anywhere in the world — fitted with a hybrid GSM (cellular) and Argos (satellite) transmitter, which allows us to monitor his movements year-round. His transmitter was paid for by generous donors to Project SNOWstorm. In May and June 2019 Otter migrated north to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, summering on uninhabited Rowley Island in the Foxe Basin. In October and November he moved south along the western margins of Hudson and James Bay, and checked in via GSM cell network with his full data load Dec. 1, 2019, just north of Montreal.

Pettibone – 2018

This adult male, tagged Feb. 10, 2018, in Kidder County, ND, by Matt Solensky of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Prairie Research Center, was at least five years old at the time. His transmitter was funded by generous donations from the public, and he was named for a nearby town. Pettibone migrated north in April 2018 to Banks Island in the western Canadian Arctic, where he established a small territory suggesting he may have been provisioning a nest. He migrated south in October 2018 and wintered in southern Saskatchewan. The following spring he migrated north to Bathurst Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, where it appears he did not breed. Pettibone came south in November 2019 and reconnected near Quill Lakes, SK.

Stella – 2018

This juvenile female was captured by a four-person SNOWstorm team Jan. 15, 2018, on the south shore of Amherst Island, Ontario, at the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. She is part of an ongoing study to determine the extent to which 27 large wind turbines, being installed on Amherst, impact the movements of wintering snowy owls there. She returned south Nov. 15, 2018, checking in from southern Saskatchewan after spending the summer on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic. She spent the winter of 2018-19 in northeastern Montana, then migrated north for the summer of 2019 to Lougheed Island, one of the most remote and northerly parts of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. She migrated south in October 2019 to southern Saskatchewan. Her transmitter was underwritten with generous donations from the public to Project SNOWstorm.

Woodworth – 2018

This adult male was tagged Dec. 10, 2018, on the Stutsman/Kidder county line, ND, by Matt Solensky of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Prairie Research Center. He spent most of the winter of 2018-19 on the North Dakota/Manitoba border, migrating north in April 2019 to the Boothia Peninsula in the central Canadian Arctic, where he spent the summer.