Once a rare sight, birds have started moving into northern states
By Rosemary Parker
Kalamazoo Gazette
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - A snowy owl named Prairie Ronde has become the latest addition to Project SNOWstorm, a collaborative effort to track the giant raptors that have descended into Michigan in recent winters from their typical home in the tundra.
Once a rare sight, the birds have begun to move into northern states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, and states in the Northeast, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette. They sometimes create a dangerous nuisance on airports, where they like to perch to watch for mice and voles across the open expanse that may resemble the tundra to them, said Rich Keith of the Kalamazoo Valley Bird Observatory. The large birds, with wingspans of up to five-and-a-half feet, can interfere with flights.
Prairie Ronde, a female, was trapped by USDA Wildlife Services at the MBS International Airport in Saginaw and was banded, tagged and relocated Feb. 11 to Prairie Ronde Township near Schoolcraft.
Her transmitter was funded by donations to Project SNOWstorm, a study of the birds' movements. Last year, 22 snowy owls were fitted with transmitters, four in Wisconsin and the rest in the Northeast. This year, Michigan joined the effort, with transmitters for birds trapped in the Upper Peninsula, Grand Rapids and Saginaw. The Lower Peninsula birds were released near Lansing and Schoolcraft.
Last year, far more than usual of the birds were sighted in Michigan, and at first scientists thought it might be due to a food shortage in the north.
Abundant lemmings, a food source there, led to lots of young birds hatching the summer before last, and the reasoning was that perhaps those young birds were forced to fly far out of their way to successfully compete for food when winter came, Keith said.
Snowy owls can lay up to eight eggs, and raise all off the nest when there is an abundant lemming population, Keith said.
But where they travel and when has been somewhat of a mystery, and the transmitters may shed some light. Keith said the hope is to learn more about how the owls are using wintering habitat, where are they coming from, and what kind of habitat and food are they looking for.
Keith said even when the birds return north, the transmitters will continue to record their movements, data that can be downloaded when the birds move back into cell tower range. This winter, five of last year's tracked birds have returned.
Thanks in part to the new information provided by Project SNOWstorm birds, scientists now believe their population to be as few as 31,000 individuals, fewer than once thought.
"Habitats are changing," Keith said. "Now that ice is changing (in the tundra), no one knows what the results will be."
"We don't know the answers to those kind of questions - what it going to happen to lemmings, what is going to happen to ducks?," Keith said. "Those things are all in flux and it probably all matters."
Groups collaborating in the project include Michigan Bird Conservation, Audubon Society of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Valley Bird Observatory, Kalamazoo Nature Center, Laughing Whitefish Audubon Society and the Michigan Audubon Society.
Chis Neri and Nova MacKently banded birds in Paradise; they were joined by David Brinker, one of the organizers of the program, from Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and Scott Weidensaul in Pennsylvania.
Alma, from Grand Rapids, and Chippewa, from the Upper Peninsula, are third year birds; Prairie Ronde is older, perhaps a 5th year bird, Keith said.
"Thousands of snowy owls have again invaded the Great Lakes, northern prairies and Northeast - and we need your help to continue this ground-breaking study. We hope to tag an additional 15-20 snowy owls this winter, and expand the other research we've begun," the Project SNOWstorm site states. The solar-powered transmitters each cost about $3,000.
Published: Tue, Feb 24, 2015
