Since late October, one thing sudden has been taking place: Snowy Owls have been displaying up in all places. They’ve appeared throughout the Canadian prairies and Maritimes and within the Nice Lakes area, notably round Ontario, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Sightings have quickly elevated all through November and December, with the hanging white raptors reported in areas the place they’ve been largely or fully absent in recent times, together with British Columbia, Washington, New York, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, and South Dakota.
Their look in numbers has taken Snowy Owl experts by surprise. “We anticipated it was going to be a boring winter,” says Scott Weidensaul, naturalist and co-founder of Undertaking SNOWstorm, a analysis challenge targeted on the species. Weidensaul and his workforce hadn’t heard the stories of great breeding that might usually precede a significant southward irruption of owls. However “the Canadian Arctic is a giant place,” he says. “There will need to have been a big breeding occasion up there, as a result of there’s lots of child owls coming south this fall.”
Although Snowy Owls can nonetheless catch specialists off-guard, scientific information of the species has come a good distance prior to now decade. That’s thanks largely to Undertaking SNOWstorm (whose title refers to SNOW, the banding code scientists use for the species). Over the previous decade, Weidensaul and his colleagues have shaken up typical knowledge about Snowy Owl populations and actions, utilizing these insights to assist form conservation efforts for the species.
The challenge arose from an irruption occasion much more intense than the one enjoying out now. Within the winter of 2013-2014, Snowy Owls flooded into the Northeast and the Nice Lakes area in numbers possible not seen in a century, showing as far south as Florida and Bermuda. Weidensaul and different owl fanatics realized they’d a uncommon alternative to check the birds near residence. “None of us are going to dwell lengthy sufficient to see one thing like this once more,” Weidensaul remembers a buddy telling him. “We determined to get as a lot info from that huge irruption as we may.”
They rapidly arrange Project SNOWstorm, recruited volunteers, and raised sufficient funding to outfit 22 birds with solar-powered transmitters. Since then, the nonprofit has tracked greater than 115 birds in 17 states, producing what the workforce believes is the world’s largest dataset on native and migration actions of Snowy Owls.
The researchers additionally collect well being knowledge after they seize birds for tagging, and what they’ve discovered has helped to overturn a longstanding myth about what’s behind Snowy irruptions. “For a lot of, a few years, folks assumed that what drove these owls south was starvation, that these have been ravenous owls that couldn’t discover something to eat within the Arctic,” Weidensaul says. In actual fact, influxes consist primarily of wholesome, younger Snowy Owls born the earlier summer season within the Arctic—not a response to meals shortages, however a results of owl child booms fueled by bountiful prey within the type of lemmings.
The workforce’s findings have additionally raised conservation considerations in regards to the species.
These younger birds may come south in search of an appropriate place to dwell out their first winter whereas older, extra dominant people occupy prime Arctic habitat, says Rebecca McCabe, analysis biologist at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and a member of the Worldwide Snowy Owl Working Group (ISOWG), each of which collaborate carefully with Undertaking SNOWstorm. Not all birds that come south are younger, although; sure adults come south yearly, and others each different 12 months. “We see lots of variation amongst people,” McCabe says.
The workforce’s findings have additionally raised conservation considerations in regards to the species. Snowy Owls are going through rising and vital dangers from local weather change, rodenticides, mercury poisoning, avian influenza, and car strikes. “Something that we are able to do to guard these birds and their breeding grounds, and enhance their year-to-year breeding success, goes to be necessary,” Weidensaul stated.
That’s very true as a result of, as Undertaking SNOWstorm’s knowledge have helped to indicate, there are far fewer Snowy Owls than was beforehand thought. In 2004, scientists estimated the worldwide inhabitants might be as excessive as 290,000 owls. Satellite tv for pc monitoring, by Undertaking SNOWstorm and different teams, helped refine that quantity by displaying simply how nomadic this species could be. “We didn’t understand that the snowy owls which can be breeding in central Canada one 12 months could also be in Greenland the subsequent 12 months,” Weidensaul says. A global status assessment of the inhabitants, launched in 2025 by the ISOWG with vital assist from Undertaking SNOWstorm, places the inhabitants between 14,000 and 28,000 breeding-age adults.
Serving to to guard the birds by sharing their findings with the general public and resolution makers is a giant a part of the SNOWstorm workforce’s work, Weidensaul says. Their findings have proven useful at airports, for instance, the place Snowy Owls usually spend the winter, posing a threat for the birds and for airplane passengers.
The monitoring knowledge are additionally pointing the workforce towards areas of the Arctic which can be particularly necessary for the owls and might have safety. Earlier this 12 months, Undertaking SNOWstorm started analyzing summer season motion knowledge with the aim of predicting the place Snowy Owls select to nest year-to-year within the Canadian Arctic. The evaluation has already recognized locations the place unusually massive numbers of the birds congregate in summer season. “That is our glimpse into that world, and to attempt to higher perceive what these owls want on this actually necessary a part of their vary.”
Wherever Snowies present up, it’s necessary for birders and photographers to offer them area and take warning to not disturb them.
As for his or her wintering areas, Undertaking SNOWstorm might be watching the place their owls with transmitters may seem over the subsequent few months. The birds noticed within the south are principally juveniles to date; adults usually comply with later. Snowy Owls are generalists within the winter, consuming small mammals like muskrats and rabbits, and water birds like loons, geese, and grebes, in order that they’re more likely to present up in tundra-like farm fields or by our bodies of water. Some birds hunker down in a wintering space, whereas others transfer round, notably as they prepared for spring migration. Final 12 months, Undertaking SNOWstorm tracked Snowy Owls heading again to the Arctic when milder climate hit in March, however a few owls have been in Ontario and Quebec as late as Could.
Wherever Snowies present up, it’s necessary for birders and photographers to offer them area and take warning to not disturb them, specialists say. If an owl stares at you, bobs its head repeatedly, or in any other case responds to your presence, you’re too shut and will instantly give it extra space.
In spite of everything, Snowy Owls face sufficient threats already, and this 12 months’s shock irruption is a present to not be squandered.
