Hochelaga is named for the original Iroquoian village at what is now Montréal. He was trapped by biologist Julie Lecours of Falcon Environmental on March 2, 2021, at the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, was already banded, and records showed Falcon had originally trapped him at the airport on March 4, 2016, by which time he was already mature and almost completely white.

He migrated north and spent the summer of 2021 on Southampton Island in the Canadian Arctic, and remained far north until mid-December, 2021, when he flew rapidly south back to Montréal. After migrating northwest to the central Arctic on the Boothia Peninsula in spring 2022, he then remained in the north over the subsequent winter of 2022-23, never coming farther south than central James Bay.

In spring 2023 he flew east and north to Southampton Island and then backtracked to the Ungava Peninsula, where he remained until migrating rapidly south in late December 2023, arriving back in Montréal Jan. 14, 2024. Hochelaga’s transmitter was underwritten by generous contributions from the public to Project SNOWstorm.


We are raising $15,000 this year for Snowy Owl research.

We're continuing our work this winter, learning more about these majestic Arctic predators, but we can't do it without your help. Your donation to Project SNOWstorm is tax-deductible through our institutional home, the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Pennsylvania, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

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