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.
Photo by Monica Hall
Understanding Snowy Owl Activity Patterns
The Snowbird Returns
Columbia, the snowy owl that Madison Audubon assisted in banding with help from ProjectSNOWstorm, is back on the radar and in the United States. Will she head back to Wisconsin? Follow her journey here. Photo by Monica Hall
We were delighted to receive an email from Project SNOWstorm on November 28, 2020 titled A New Season Amid Unusual Challenges by Scott Weidensaul. Scrolling quickly through the blog we spotted a photo taken by Monica Hall of “Columbia” being banded and fitted with her transmitter by Gene Jacobs in our residence laundry room on January 28th, 2020.
The text read:
“We got full data uploads from Stella and Columbia, both of whom checked in for the first time within minutes of each other on Nov. 12. Columbia, you may recall, was an adult female tagged in January by Gene Jacobs at Madison (WI) Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary. She headed north in April, following the western edge of Hudson Bay to the Melville Peninsula, crossing to Baffin Island, then veering west and eventually reaching Prince of Wales Island in the central Canadian Arctic of Nunavut by mid-June.
Gene Jacobs holds Columbia. Photo by Monica Hall
There’s no indication from the tracking data that Columbia nested, though as a two-and-a-half-year-old bird, she might still have been a little young to breed. (The age at which snowy owls usually become sexually mature is still unclear.) She had several areas where she spent weeks at a time, but never showed the singular focus on one spot for six or seven weeks that would indicate a nest.
Columbia began moving south in mid-September, again following the western coast of Hudson Bay to Cape Churchill, where she headed southwest across Manitoba. By Nov. 19 she was near Canora, in extreme southeastern Saskatchewan.”
It is amazing to be sitting at a computer and being able to look at over 7,600 hourly locations of a snowy owl that was last held by Graham Steinhauer at Goose Pond on a cold winter night last January.
You can browse through an interactive map of Columbia’s journey here. Zoom in on the map to take a closer look at the many, many locations she visited on her journey. Screenshot from Project SNOWstorm
Mark could spend hours looking at the data and exploring more about Prince of Wales Island (Canada). For Columbia to reach Prince of Wales Island she flew northwest from Goose Pond to eastern North Dakota then north. A distance of about 2,500 miles, about the same distance across the United States, but Columbia does not fly in straight lines. We wonder if a computer could calculate her miles in one year from her hourly locations?
Prince of Wales Island is Canada’s 10 largest and the 40th largest island in the world. The island is about 12,870 square miles and 20% of the size of Wisconsin. Wikipedia states there are no permanent residents.
Columbia’s summer vacation
She crossed the Gulf of Boothia on June 4 and 5th flying about 70 miles from Baffin Island and “summered” on Prince of Wales Island from June 14th to September 18th before heading south.
Prince of Wales is a great place for an owl to spend the summer looking for arctic wildlife and enjoying the scenery. In mid-summer she was treated to 24 hours of daylight. What a change from last winter at Goose Pond when she only experienced nine hours of daylight on the winter solstice.
This map shows the approximate range of snowy owls throughout the year. Mark and Sue have annotated the map to show where Columbia spent her summer! Range map from Cornell Lab’s All About Birds
Other birds of Prince Wales Island
Earl Godfrey in The Birds of Canada reported 34 nesting species on Prince of Wales Island: Yellow-billed, arctic, and red-throated loons; brant; snow geese; long-tailed ducks; king eiders; rough-legged hawks; gyrfalcons; willow and rock ptarmigans; American golden and black-bellied plovers; ruddy turnstones; red knots; pectoral, white-rumped, Baird’s, and buff-breasted sandpipers; sanderlings, red phalaropes; Pomarine, parasitic, and long-tailed jaegers; glaucous, Thayer’s, and Sabine’s gulls; arctic terns; snowy owls; horned larks; common ravens; water pitits; Lapland longspurs; and snow buntings. It is interesting that common ravens nest about five miles north of Goose Pond and that horned larks are probably the most abundant bird nesting in Arlington Township.
Mammals of Prince Wales Island
The list of mammals is not long but very impressive with marine and upland mammals including arctic fox; arctic hares; arctic wolves (subspecies Canis lupus arctos); Baleen and beluga whales; caribou; lemmings; musk oxen; narwhals polar bears; and ringed seals.
Columbia’s Fall Migration Highlights
On November 28th Columbia was sitting on the hard water of Morrison Lake in North Dakota within one mile of her March 30 stop. Columbia on December 6th was 311 miles from Goose Pond near the small town of Vesta in western Minnesota and had been heading southeast. Last year she was seen and photographed at the UW Arlington Agricultural Research Station on December 11th. We hope to see her on the prairie this winter. However, time will tell if she returns.
Columbia, photographed in the fields near the UW Agricultural Research Station near Arlington that she loved to frequent. Photo by Rich Armstrong
Read More About Columbia
Links below are the January 31, 2020 Friday Feature, November 28, 2020 blog and a link on the Project SNOWstorm website to Columbia. When you click on the dots you will notice yellow for daylight locations, gray for the blue hours and black for night. You will also see her flight speed, degree heading, and altitude (a resting location provides the land elevation and a flight location gives you an idea on her flying elevation. One time she was flying 51.9 miles per hour, probably with a tail wind and at 240 feet high.
“We Named Her Columbia” — January 31, 2020 Friday Feathered Feature
“A New Season Amid Unusual Challenges” — Project SNOWstorm blog
Columbia’s Project SNOWstorm profile page, where you can follow her journey
We hope you check out her winter travels along with other owls. Due to the Covid-19 virus no owls will be trapped and transmitted in Wisconsin this winter.
Arctic wildlife and people are greatly impacted by climate change. We hope that everyone does what they can to reduce climate change impacts.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
Snowy owls: Update on Columbia & Welcome to Fond du Lac
Columbia, the snowy owl, looks at the camera with her sharp, yellow eyes. Photo by Monica Hall
Update on “Columbia”
You can learn more about her by checking out her first Friday Feathered Feature. https://madisonaudubon.org/fff/2020/1/31/we-named-her-columbia
Scott Weidensaul’s March 1st Project SNOWstorm blog post is titled Zugunruhe to You, Too! https://www.projectsnowstorm.org/posts/zugunruhe-to-you-too/
“Ornithologists use the German term, zugunruhe — which translates to “migratory restlessness” — to describe this kind of growing itch that migrants feel as the seasons change. It’s brought on by hormonal changes triggered by both the bird’s internal circadian rhythms and the changing day length. Often it’s a strong wind from the right direction — southerly, in this case — that prompts an exploratory flight…” Four snowy owls with transmitters in the Dakotas and Saskatchewan exhibited zugunruhe the last week of February. Scott wrote, “There’s been less evidence of zugunruhe in the owls farther east. In Wisconsin, Columbia has been tracing a very distinct movement pattern northeast of Morrisonville, a narrow, 7.5-mile (12-km) long path anchored at one end by the farmland and a sand quarry near Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary, and at the other what must be a highly productive field for hunting just east of a large housing development.”
Columbia did not exhibit any zugunruhe until March 8th. At sunset she said goodbye to her new friends and headed north. She was flying at 30 miles per hour on southerly 12 mile per hour winds when she passed South Leeds. At one location she was clocked at 41 miles per hour.
A path marks Columbia’s northward journey since March 8.
Columbia would make frequent stops, with her first at the French Creek North State Natural Area in southern Marquette County. She then headed over John Muir County Park (this location was on her bucket list), and ended up that morning just south of the Plainfield Tunnel Channel Lakes State Natural Area in Waushara County, 62 miles from her start 12 hours before. She roosted and hunted in irrigated crop fields until 9:00 p.m. on the 10th. Then she headed north and northwest for a 46-mile flight ending up at the George Mead State Wildlife Area, northwest of Stevens Point where she stayed for one day before again moving northwest on a 72 mile flight ending up at a open bog in Sawyer County. Could she be taking a northwest direction to avoid flying over Lake Superior?
Fond du Lac, the snowy owl. Photo by Richard Armstrong
Introduction to “Fond du Lac”
Catching another owl was a partnership effort with Fond du Lac County Audubon Society who took the lead by paying for a new transmitter. Unfortunately no one from the organization was able to join us for the trapping effort. It was amazing to be able to catch three snowy owls. Thanks to Angel Clark, Suzanne Bahls and Scott for their articles on the experience.
The Clark and Bahls family searched for owls on Saturday afternoon and located seven snowy owls!
From a participant:
“On Saturday evening, February 22, 2020, my husband, Pat, informed me we should take our son Ben, to Norton’s Supper Club, on Green Lake, for his 25th birthday. Pat, then mentioned we need to leave a little early to search for snowy owls on the Mackford Prairie. He called his mission, "Operation Snow Storm.” I have never seen a snowy owl in the wild, so I wasn't quite sure what to look for. I thought this was another one of his wild goose chases searching for rare birds with his Madison Audubon buddies. It also makes me nervous when he's driving and looking through binoculars, so I sat in the backseat thinking I would be safer there.
To our surprise we found one!... A female snowy owl was peached on a snowbank. However, she didn't stay on the snowbank for very long. She started to fly south-east and we followed her. It was hard to see her with the naked eye as she flew further and further away… She finally landed again in a snow covered field near a fence line. I also would like to mention, that this is truly like trying to find a needle in a haystack with all the snow and the owl basically being all white. But we did it! And boy, were we proud of ourselves! My husband, Pat, was so excited he called Mark Martin to give him his news report... "Hi, Mark. This is Pat. We spotted a snowy owl south-east on Lake Emily Road," I could hear Mark's voice on the other end. Mark said, "That's great Pat, now find another!" I chuckled to myself. It reminded me of a school child getting a good mark on a paper, and the teacher saying, now do it again on your next paper!
The second spotting was on a telephone pole on the corner of Hickory Road, and Highway A. It was another female snowy owl. We were all in complete awe of this magnificent creature. It seemed as if this particular bird enjoyed the attention and wanted us to take her picture. We took many pictures with our mere camera phones. Then she must have spotted something edible on the ground across Highway A. It took off, swooped down just when there was an oncoming car! I thought my husband was going to jump out of his seat! He screamed, "Oh no, don't get hit by that car!" It did not. The owl made it safely to the other side, and came back to where it was originally peached. However, that seemed like it was very dangerous for the bird. Now I can see that these magnificent creatures need safer places to be. Better places for them to perch and find food.
...From this experience, I have a whole new appreciation for these volunteers and scientists. Now, future generations will be able to experience what we did! Thank you, Project SnowStorm for all your hard work and dedication!”
-Sincerely, Angel Clark
Nine people met on Sunday (February 23) afternoon in Green Lake County east of Lake Maria to catch as many snowy owls as possible. Volunteers included Richard Armstrong, J D Arnston, Mark and Pat Clark from Madison Audubon, Jeff and Suzanne Bahls, and Rick Vant Hoff from the Horicon Marsh Bird Club, and Gene Jacobs and Brad Zinda from Linwood Springs.
From a participant:
“My snowy owl obsession started about thirteen years ago when I went on a “first date” with Jeff Bahls. He took me to see one on highway 49 at Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. Every winter since, I have looked forward to their visits in our neck of the woods. When Jeff and I got married a few years back, we had a small, simple ceremony with our kids and celebrated afterwards with a snowy owl cake! Therefore, a few weeks ago, when Mark Martin contacted Jeff about locating a Snowy Owl to be tagged for tracking, thoughts of actually getting to see one up close was like a dream!
Jeff and I headed over to where we had seen one earlier... off a lightly traveled county road. When we got there, it had relocated to the other side of the road and further away. Gene thought it was still close enough, so he set the trap near the road and we watched… and waited. This owl did not budge. We watched him cough up a pellet and we thought, well, he must be hungry now... Mark Martin, who had been watching with us decided to take a little drive around and see if there were any other Snowies in the area. He found one sitting on a pole on the next road over. We could actually see it from where we were sitting. The problem was the road the second owl was on is a busy road. Mark talked to the landowner and got permission to set a trap on the ground away from the road. It was decided to take a chance on the second owl.
We picked up our trap and drove over to the second location. Brad took the trap and set it within sight of the second owl. We watched and waited again. About ten minutes later, the owl hopped off the pole and flew to the trap. She landed on top of it and then hopped off. She did not get tangled in the fishing line that was used to trap her. She sat a few feet from the trap and looked at it for a few minutes, then walked back to it and jumped on it a couple times, but still did not get tangled in the line. She then flew off about a hundred yards. Our hearts sank. Brad walked to the trap and re-adjusted the fishing line, and came back to the truck. We watched and waited again... Several minutes later she took off flying toward the trap and finally got snagged in the line. Jeff and Brad jumped out of the truck and ran to the trap and went right to work untangling the owl. We got her!
We assisted Gene Jacobs and Brad Zinda in any way we could. During those few hours we caught three adult female Snowy Owls. Two were measured, banded and released back where they were caught. The third snowy was processed and Gene attached a GPS transmitter so Project SNOWstorm biologists can track her movements. It was amazing to witness first-hand the wings, beaks and talons of these gorgeous birds, and to see and work with the people from Madison Audubon and Linwood Springs Research Station. Reflecting on the events of that night still seems like a dream. It was an experience I will dream about for many years to come.”
-Suzanne Bahls
Fond du Lac stayed close to where she was released until March 7 when she moved a few miles north, just south of Green Lake. Her last cell phone was from that area on March 10th. We look forward to seeing her migration northward.
Find more information on the capture and release of three snowy owls at the Project SnowStorm on Scott’s blog post titled Fond du lac, and the Owl-fecta.
We hope that the owls enjoyed their visits to southern Wisconsin. We also wish them safe travels to the land of the midnight sun and hope they return to southern Wisconsin next winter for another vacation.
Thanks to everyone who donated funds for the transmitters, to Gene and Brad from Linwood Springs for trapping and processing the owls, and to the volunteers who reported sightings, assisted with locating owls, taking photographs, trapping, and processing the birds. We hope you follow their journey north.
Written by Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, and Graham Steinhauer, land steward
We Named Her "Columbia"
Dec. 2, 2020 update: Columbia is back in the US! Her latest recorded location (with a 3 day delay) is in North Dakota. Track Columbia's movements and progress here.
Snowy owls make their way to our neck of the prairie each winter. Some years we host a half-dozen or more, while others it can be tricky to find just one. This year, the snowys have been pretty darn elusive, but we have good news on that front!
This lift-off was caught on camera on Dec. 11 near Goose Pond. Birdwatchers were hopeful that we’d get to meet this snowy owl again! Photo by Arlene Koziol
The Project
We are close partners with Project SNOWstorm, which is a non-profit organization that studies snowy owls’ ecology and migration each year (Dave Brinker, co-founder and Wisconsin native, will give a presentation for Madison Audubon on April 21 — plan to attend!). They do this by outfitting owls with GPS transmitters that collect data on their location regularly. Those data upload to the database whenever the transmitter has reception, or stores the data until the owl “has service” again (a handy feature when most of the year the owl is in the Arctic!). The transmitters are feather-light, solar powered, and do not impact the owls’ flight or behavior.
We have successfully caught and outfitted two snowy owls in the past — Goose Pond in 2015 and Arlington in 2018. In addition, we caught and weighed Quarry in 2018 at the same time as Arlington (but we had only 1 transmitter). Finally, a snowy that was caught in central Wisconsin used one of our previous transmitters making Coddington in 2019 our third outfitted owl.
The Lead-up
On December 11th, Mike Bertram, UW Arlington Research Station Manager reported the first snowy owl sighting for the winter on Badger Lane at the station.
On January 16th, owl volunteers assembled with high hopes of locating and trapping at least one and maybe two snowy owls. Lowell Wright, Noise/Environmental Officer with Dane County Regional Airport, set up trapping operations at the airport where there were two snowys residing, but he had no luck catching them that night.
On the same evening, Gene Jacobs set up his traps on Ramsey Road at the Otteson family residence near Highway 51. Steve Otteson had reported that for the past week a snowy owl had been seen perched on the electric pole at the corner of their yard in late afternoon. This owl was probably the 1.5 year-old female that first showed up on December 11th. Snowy owls like the openness of the Ramsey Road area.
The owl searchers drove a large area before and during the trapping operation and only found three short-eared owls. People were disappointed that the snowy did not appear that night, especially because Richard Armstrong stated that he’d “bet $100 we that we would see the owl.”
On January 20th, three snowy owls were reported at the Dane County airport and some of us thought that the owl on Ramsey Road was now at the airport. However, on January 24th, our neighbor Judi Benade, sent us an email titled "Owl" along with a photo of the bird and this comment "Still owls around ... this one on Kampen Rd on the 4th phone pole west of County I." This pole is near the northwest corner of Browne Prairie.
This unexpected snowy owl gift was a good omen on Jan. 28! Photo by Stacy Taritas
Today’s the Day
The owl was also seen on the 26th and 27th in the same area so plans were made to trap on the 28th. Stacy sent us this image on the morning of the 28th with this caption, “When my first grade student gifted me this snowy owl this morning, I of course hoped it was a sign that today is the day.”
Searchers again worked in vain before Gene arrived. With no owls spotted in our area Gene and all our volunteers headed to the airport except for Mark and Fred Dike who continued searching for the owl around Goose Pond. Vice President Pence was in Madison that day and Lowell informed us that we could not drive around the airport area searching for owls until the the Vice President left.
Arlys and Curt Caslavka and Dennis Schenborn were a search team. Arlys wrote,
“After two hours of searching at Goose Pond and the airport with only seeing the owl at the airport that we couldn’t try and trap, it was exciting to get the call that a snowy had been spotted on an electric pole near Goose Pond. The site was perfect for setting up the caged live pigeon about 60 yards from the pole. The snares made of fishing line on top of the cage were easily visible from where we sat.
And then the tense waiting. Five cars facing the space between the owl and the cage lined up like at an outdoor movie…for 30 minutes. Was she hungry? Interested in the pigeon? Too smart for us? Waiting for dark? At 5:07 p.m. she swooped down and landed near the cage. And for about eight minutes she hopped, walked, bounced, and danced around the cage. She puffed up her feathers and lifted her wings to move close in and out, looking in all directions, obviously cautious and assessing the situation. We didn’t want to blink for fear of missing something. Suddenly she leaped up above the cage and began flapping as the snare caught hold of her, but only by a single toe. In a second, Gene and Richard Armstrong were out of the car and heading up the hill to the trap. A minute later the owl was freed, calmed, and safe heading back in Gene’s arms. What a beautiful owl and what a heart-thumping experience this was. Lucky us!”
The beautiful snowy owl caught near Goose Pond Sanctuary on Jan. 28, 2020. She was outfitted with a transmitter for research purposes and release back into the wild. Photo by Monica Hall
Everyone returned to the Kampen Road residence to the laundry room to help process, photograph, and observe the banding and attachment of the transmitter. After processing the owl she was released at the capture location by Graham Steinhauer. Everyone wished her good luck.
Gene Jacobs examins the snowy owl to determine her age. Photo by Dennis Schenborn
Meet Columbia
The marvelous snowy owl weighed a hefty five and a quarter pounds. Later Gene examined wing photos and found that she was the same 1.5 year old that Arlene photographed on December 11th. Project SNOWstorm likes to name owls after a location. Our first owl an adult male caught on February 13, 2015 was named Goose Pond. Arlington, a juvenile male, was our second owl so Sue said “Let’s name her Columbia.” Thanks to everyone that has provided us with owl sightings, photographs, and assisted with searching and trapping.
Third time’s a charm?
After Arlington passed away in 2018, his transmitter was recovered, refurbished, and placed on Cottington, an adult male, in 2019 at the Buena Vista Marsh southwest of Stevens Point. Unfortunately Cottington ended up getting covered by manure at a farm and had to enter rehab. He was cleaned up and released without the transmitter. So Arlington’s transmitter was placed on Columbia making this the fourth Madison Audubon owl of Project SNOWstorm’s 100 owls. We wish Columbia well on her journey to the arctic and hope that she helps researchers learn more about snowy owl ecology and also provides an educational opportunity for the public to appreciate these magnificent animals.
Leslie, a mother of two children and a grade school teacher wrote the following note after her visit with the kids the day before Columbia was caught.
“On Monday afternoon my children Wally (7) and Cece (5) and I set out to explore Goose Pond for a great outdoor winter adventure looking for snowy owls. We'd been following the pictures and stories about the snowys on the Madison Audubon Facebook page and tracking the owls on Project Snowstorm for the past few winters. We LOVE snowy owls at our house, so we came prepared! We brought our three stuffed animal owls - 2 snowys and their friend, the barn owl.
We were very fortunate to encounter Mark & Graham in the first few minutes of our search. In fact, we hadn't even gotten out of the car when they found us and lead us to a nearby area where they had just recently seen the bird we now know as Columbia. We could hardly contain our excitement at having found some guides who might lead us to see the snowy ourselves. When we pulled into a driveway, we could see the snowy owl right at the top of the hill. We were absolutely thrilled. This was a huge highlight of 2020 thus far! We stayed probably 45 minutes and watched the bird through binoculars. The kids squealed with delight when it seemed as if Columbia looked right at them! Watching the snowy owl fly was incredible for all of us, too. Just stunning. The following day in school, Wally was inspired to write a story about snowy owls here in Wisconsin and teach his classmates all we know about the snowys.
Columbia sits and waits for supper (taken on Dec. 11, 2019). Photo by Arlene Koziol
What a treat! Thanks so much to Madison Audubon for your incredible work. And special thanks to our tour guides on this special day! We'll not forget it and we'll look forward to tracking Columbia and to more adventures in the beautiful Goose Pond area.”
Within a week or so, anyone will be able to track Columbia’s whereabouts on the Project SNOWstorm website. The project protects the birds by delaying the release of locations by 3 days, so keep that in mind as you watch her move around Wisconsin and eventually up to the Arctic.
Bon voyage, Columbia!
By Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, goosep@madisonaudubon.org
