Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance staff and volunteers like to assist or coordinate citizen science and research projects that benefit wildlife, especially birds. We have memories and highlights from a few raptor research projects that we will always remember.

Mark Martin remembers the night that three Snowy Owls were captured. Usually, if we catch one Snowy Owl in three nights, it’s a big deal. That night, Mark, volunteers, and Gene’s assistant caught one and walked to the road. Gene Jacobs slowly pulled up with Richard Armstrong and rolled down the window. The two of them were each holding a Snowy Owl as well.

*Sue Foote-Martin holds a Snowy Owl during a banding process (photo by Richard Armstrong).*

A highlight for Sue Foote-Martin was holding the Snowy Owl named Columbia during the tagging operation which took place in the laundry room at the Kampen Road residence.

Emma Raasch assisted Neil Paprocki to capture and process (band, equip with the transmitter, and gather other data) Jeffrey, the Rough-legged Hawk at White River Marsh. It was a privilege to see the hawk’s feathery legs that give them their name up close (Emma likes to think of them as their ‘pants’). It was a frigid day with blustery winds, and she was tasked with shielding Jeffrey from the harsh weather. However, these conditions seemed to be a walk-in-the-park for this arctic raptor, and Emma thinks he may have been doing more of the protecting by warming her hands.

Graham Steinhauer will always remember being forty feet high in a pole-straight hickory wrapped in poison ivy—no place for a human, but an ideal place for a Red-shouldered Hawk nest: “On my way up (thanks to sturdy tree climbing gear) to secure the chicks for banding, I could see eyes peeking down. When I got to their level, they tried and failed to look intimidating as often happens with young raptors. I was in the exact place where the chicks had spent their whole lives so far. I can’t fly so I think that’s as close to feeling like a hawk as I’ll ever get.”

In this feature, we share updates on species from three raptor projects. Thanks to everyone involved with this research, including the donors that generously funded the transmitters and the researchers.

Red-shouldered Hawk research by Gene and John Jacobs

*Curt Caslavka holds a young Red-shouldered Hawk (photo by Mark Martin).*

Mark Martin and Curt Caslavka assisted Gene Jacobs and his crew in trying to capture a male Red-shouldered Hawk in June 2024, not far from Wisconsin Rapids. The nest was in the backyard of a rural landowner. They were unsuccessful at first but succeeded a few days later. The male hawk was named Curt as thanks to Curt and Arlys Caslavka, who paid for the cell phone transmitter.

*Map of Curt’s journey north towards Wisconsin in 2024/2025 (courtesy of John & Gene Jacobs).*

John and Gene provided the following recent updates on Curt:
“Curt wintered in central Tenn. We lost contact with him most of the winter but on Feb 26, 2025 he flew north for 2 days. A February report from Feb 28 - Curt is in Evansville, Indiana near the border with Kentucky. Feb. 26, 27, and 28 must have been good soaring days with winds from the south or southwest and Curt decided to start migrating back to Wisconsin. The last few days a cold front went through and winds shifted strong from the north and northwest so he decided to sit out the last few days.”
March 5, 2025 update: “He is now in central Illinois near Peoria, waiting out this snowstorm. Depending on the weather it might take longer than a few days for him to return to his nesting site [in Wisconsin].”

To learn more about John and Gene Jacobs’ research on Red-shouldered Hawks, check out their annual report, Annual Report of Reproduction for Red-shouldered Hawks Central and Northeast Wisconsin 2024. For more information on the telemetry study, see the 2024 report, Tracking the Phantoms.

Rough-legged Hawk Project by Neil Paprocki

Neil Paprocki provided the following updates on two rough-legs that our team helped with capturing and equipping with transmitters: Dorothy (captured at Goose Pond by Neil and Graham) and Jeffrey (captured at White River Marsh State Wildlife Area by Neil and Emma).

Dorothy (shown as pink on the map) “returned to the Goose Pond area as of 23-Dec! She has already visited the sanctuary and is roosting at her favorite homestead along Maas Rd. Prior to 23-Dec, Dorothy had spent considerable time in the Phillips-Cranberry Lake-Prentice area in north-central Wisconsin.” As of March 6, “Dorothy has been off and on at Goose Pond, but has spent most of the winter where she is now: north of Montello, WI.”

Jeffrey (shown as green on the map) “moved a bit south (also on 23-Dec) to Mankato, MN where he spent a good chunk of the 2023-24 winter as well. Prior to 23-Dec, Jeffrey had spent time in central Minnesota a bit northwest of St. Cloud.” As of March 6, “Jeffrey has spent a good chunk of winter near Mankato, MN but has recently started moving back north and is currently NNW of St. Cloud, MN.”

To learn more about Rough-legged Hawk movements in Wisconsin, check out this recent webinar presentation by Neil, hosted by Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance and the Ozaukee Washington Bird Coalition.

Project SNOWstorm, lead by Scott Weidensaul and David Brinker

In January 2020, Goose Pond Sanctuary staff and volunteers captured a Snowy Owl at the sanctuary that was banded and equipped with a transmitter by Gene Jacobs for Project SNOWstorm. She was given the nickname Columbia. That February, the team helped capture another owl near Waupun, WI, named after the Fond du Lac Audubon Society sponsored the transmitter (read the full story: Fond du Lac, and the Owl-fecta). Both birds provided many years of key data, with Columbia providing the third-most data of all the Snowy Owls in Project SNOWstorm (42,832 data points from several trips back and forth to the arctic recorded).

In late December 2024, dozens of researchers from the International Snowy Owl Working Group (ISOWG) published the first global status assessment for Snowy Owls in Bird Conservation International. This study found that the worldwide population of Snowy Owls was significantly overestimated for decades, and that Snowy Owl populations have declined by approximately a third over the last 25–30 years. In response to the global assessment, Paul Smith addresses the concerns for Snowy Owls and highlights the role that our ‘Wisconsin owls’ play in learning more about their behavior and how to conserve them in a recent article for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

For more information about the population of Snowy Owls, read Project SNOWstorm’s post, First-ever Global Status Assessment for Snowy Owls Raises Red Flags.

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary managers; Emma Raasch, Goose Pond Sanctuary ecological restoration technician; and Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward.

Cover image by Monica Hall. A Snowy Owl takes flight at Goose Pond Sanctuary.