Snowy Owls From the Arctic Tundra to the Merrimack Valley

During the winter of 2013-14, snowy owl sightings in the Northeast and Great Lakes region increased to a degree not seen in four or five decades. Snowy owls were reported as far south as northern Florida, in Bermuda, and even in Hawaii. Here, reports of snowy owl sightings rippled through the Merrimack Valley’s photographic and wildlife communities. They had been seen infrequently in the past—maybe a few at Salisbury Beach State Reservation, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum , or in Rye, N.H.—but this time it wasn’t just one owl being spotted. There were several in the same locations.

In the past, large snowy owl “irruptions” the lower 48 states have occurred every few years, small migrations of snowy owls one year are followed by larger numbers of migrating owls during the next two or three years. Until recently.

According to eBird.org, a data collection site run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of snowy owls sighted in North America since November 2009, particularly in the Northeast. The eBird website enables you to compare the frequency and abundance of bird sightings for particular years on its species maps, which are compiled from members’ actual observation charts.

Two research organizations—Project SNOWstorm and Mass Audubon—have been at the in tracking and studying the irruption of snowy owls in the Northeast.

Project SNOWstorm is a collaborative effort launched in 2013 by David Brinker, a wildlife biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Scott Weidensaul, who directs the owl migration research program at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg, Pa., Steve Huy, a bander and researcher from Maryland, and Norman Smith of Mass Audubon.

Dozens of scientists, researchers, wildlife agencies and organizations have worked together to collect important data from the snowy owls in order to better understand and conserve them. GPS transmitters attached to the owls can send signals for up to 11 years, enabling scientists to monitor an owl’s location, air temperature and altitude, which leads to information on snowy owl migration routes, the rate of speed at which they travel, where they stop to rest, and where they spend breeding and winter seasons.

These studies recently revealed that the owls coming south are not migrating due to a scarcity of food in the Arctic, as was previously thought, but are migrating due to “baby booms.” The Arctic owls have enjoyed several years of food abundance (lemmings, voles and ptarmigan) and have produced large numbers of chicks that have fledged well, necessitating the need for more hunting territory. It’s the young snowies that are migrating south.

Smith, director of the Blue Hills Trailside Museum at Mass Audubon in Milton, has been studying snowy owls since 1981. Along their migration routes, snowies stop at places that mirror their homeland: open marshes and meadows with low scrubby bushes and trees, perfect cover for the small rodents and birds that snowy owls eat.

To the owls, Logan Airport in Boston seems to fit this bill perfectly. Sadly, the owls present problems for the planes and endanger themselves at the airport. So Smith has been trapping and relocating them since 1997, following protocols established by Jeffrey Turner, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (For anyone else, trapping snowy owls is illegal in the U.S.)

Using captive mice and a bow net, Smith attaches small transmitters to the owls’ backs before releasing the at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island in Newburyport.

Protected areas such as Parker River and Salisbury Beach State Reservation provide necessary resting spots for migrating birds. Unfortunately, in the past few years the snowy owls’ popularity has increased to the point that it’s not unusual to see cars lining the road to Salisbury Beach. People getting too close, causing the owls to constantly take flight, has caused some birds to become stressed and can interfere with their hunting.

In the winter of 2013-14, Smith relocated snowy owls from Logan Airport and 76 from other . The 100th snowy owl relocated to Plum from Logan Airport, named Century, is now being tracked by Project SNOWstorm. You can follow Century along with three other owls relocated from Logan airport — Duxbury, Plum and Sandy Neck — on their website.

According to Smith, only strong, healthy snowies receive GPS transmitters, perhaps only one in 20. Although no relocated snowy owls have returned to Logan, Smith says, “The transmitters have shown us that some owls have traveled back to their Arctic breeding grounds and bred there, something that was not previously known.”

By May 2014 there were more than 100 nests with eggs at the snowy owl breeding grounds on Baffin Island in Canada. Whether the owlets have successfully fledged and will migrate remains to be seen, but this winter could be another big year for snowy owls in the Merrimack Valley.

Project SNOWstorm
ProjectSnowStorm.org

Mass Audubon
MassAudubon.org

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge
Newburyport, Mass.
(978) 465-5753
FWS.gov/Refuge/Parker_River

Salisbury Beach State Reservation
Salisbury, Mass.
(978) 462-4481
Mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-north/salisbury-beach-state-reservation.html