Snowy Owl Telemetry Research Project

A color-marked snowy owl at Duxbury Beach

Project Participants

Blue Hills Trailside Museum
Massachusetts Audubon Society
Milton, Massachusetts

USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Center
Snake River Field Station
Boise, Idaho

The Owl Institute
Missoula, Montana

Project Dates

Project Initiation Date
January 10, 2000

ProjectCompletion Date
April 30, 2005

Project Abstract

Norman Smith, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society's (MAS) Blue Hills Trailside Museum, has been studying snowy owls since 1981. He has established a collaborative partnership between Blue Hills Trailside Museum and the USGS Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Center (USGS FRESC) Snake River Field Station, based on owl research as it relates to snowy owls, their migration patterns, and their ecological requirements.

The MAS Blue Hills Trailside Museum applied for and received the appropriate permits for this project and began attaching satellite transmitters to selected wild snowy owls wintering at Boston's Logan International Airport.

These satellite transmitters will identify the migration routes of selected wild snowy owls. The information gained from tracking migration routes will be used to complement Smith's ongoing 20 year research and education program.

Snowy owls are Massachusetts' largest owl. Data collected via satellite telemetry on these birds will advance Smith's research in 3 major ways.

1. Provide critical information on the physical health and elusive migration patterns of snowy owls wintering in Massachusetts
2. Disseminate gathered conservation and natural history data through public education programs and research articles.
3. Introduce a technologically advanced tracking technique to snowy owl research at Logan International Airport as part of the Snake River Field Station snowy owl telemetry project in Idaho.

This 3-year project will be done in collaboration with the USGS Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Center (USGS FRESC), Boise State University in Idaho (BSU), and the Owl Research Institute (ORI) in Missoula, Montana. Denver Holt (ORI), Mark Fuller (FRESC), and Linda Schueck (BSU) are tracking snowy owls via transmitter from their breeding grounds in Barrow, Alaska, while we track owls from their wintering grounds at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. BSU will collect satellite data from both simultaneous tracking projects. Mark Fuller, raptor biologist at Snake River, is a leader in the field of raptor telemetry with satellite-received platform terminal transmitters. He (with Linda, the Center for Conservation Research and Technology at the University of Baltimore, and other collaborators) has tracked over 150 raptors of various species and will coordinate this project.

Expected results include: determining the migration routes and destinations and advancing snowy owls tracking techniques through the use of satellite transmitters. The telemetry data will be used by all parties for publication on ecology of snowy owls and in educational programs at the Owl Research Institute and Massachusetts Audubon Society sanctuaries.