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Snowy Owls Land at Logan

Norman Smith, Director of Bluehills Trailside Museum ready to release snowy owl.

Airplanes are not the only things with wings coming and going at Logan Airport—snowy owls have taken flight and made this area a popular layover spot.

Thousands of miles from their icy home in the Arctic, Logan Airport resembles the snowy owls tundra environment along the coast and also has an abundant food supply, therefore attracting more snowy owls’ than anywhere in the Northeast.

Norman Smith, director of Mass Audubon’s Bluehills Trailside Museum is very familiar with their flight pattern and has studied snowy owls since 1981 and is considered one of the world’s authorities on the species. He has always been fascinated with owls and started partnering with Logan Airport many years ago in order to find out more information about snowy owls. Over the years he has removed and tagged 360 snowy owls as part of bird control for flight safety at Logan Airport. Snowy owls, like other birds, pose a threat to aircraft because of the possibility they might fly into an engine upon takeoff or landing.

Smith spends many hours each year out in the field not only tagging and releasing the snowy owls but also conducting scientific research on this mighty raptor. In an effort to understand their flight patterns and population count, the raptor expert uses a small satellite transmitter (30 grams) to track the migration routes of selected snowy owls.

Smith uses a simple box trap with bait to attract the snowy owl. After catching one of these majestic birds he weighs the owl, checks its fat content, height, wingspan, and overall condition, and then tags it with a bracelet that has a tracking number. The ones that are healthy enough, i.e., proficient at hunting, good body weight, and shy away from people are fitted with a satellite transmitter attached to a small harness. So far Norm has tagged and released 29 owls, one of which has a transmitter attached.

The transmitter helps identify migration routes by giving the owl’s location, and provides information on its health. In order to share data Smith has established a collaborative partnership between Blue Hills Trailside Museum, the US Geological Survey’s Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Center, Boise State University, and the Owl Research Institute.


The migration pattern of a snowy owl is tracked using a transmitter (View full map).

Researchers in the west track the snowy owls from their breeding sites in Alaska, while Mass Audubon tracks owls from their wintering grounds at certain Boston-area locations. From the data so far researchers know that from capturing owls over the years when there are abundant numbers of owls in the area they are in good condition and not suffering from starvation, as was assumed in the past. When it is a good breeding year in the arctic there are an abundant number of owls in the northeast. The transmitters have shown that some of them do make it back to the arctic.

Check out a story on Norman Smith and his research with the snowy owls from WBUR.

For more information on Smith's research, read this article in the Boston Globe and view an interview with WBZ-TV meteorologist Mish Michaels.

**The research that Norm does is not without cost, and is supported solely by donations. Each transmitter costs $3,000, which does not include the fees for the satellite service and raw data analysis necessary to produce results.

If you are interested in helping Mass Audubon conduct this groundbreaking work, please contact:
Norm Smith at 617-333-0690, ext. 222
nsmith@massaudubon.org

You can donate to the Snowy Owl Project on our secure donation form — just specify “Snowy Owl Project” as the project you wish to support.

For more information, visit MassAudubon.org/snowyowlproject.