The winter owling season approaches, and with that time of year many of us look forward to learning more about various owl species. Over the past several years Project Snowstorm has used small GPS Solar Array powered tracking bands to measure exactly where Snowy Owls go from their time in the northern United States to the Arctic for summer breeding. When a Snowy finally flies near a cell tower, even if months have passed, the owl phones home and its data is downloaded. Newer devices often communicate daily via satellite upload.

This winter we hope to put some of these high tech banding devices on Northern Hawk Owls (the owl on my banner). Are hawk owls breeding in Minnesota far from any roads deep in Bogs, or are our friends heading somewhere up in Canada (our best guess). The next question would be where are our winter owls breeding?

Here are some screenshots from eBird which track Snowy Owl reportings (not data downloads from Project Snowstorm). The screenshots demostrate how Snowies disappear from view during their migration … in the vast Canadian wilderness, but eventually reappear at which point their data tracks are downloaded.

October 2020 (Oct. 1 to 16 … essentially no owls)

October 2019 (entire month)

November 2019 (entire month)