Satellite tracking of Norwegian Snowy Owls
Hedwig is gone, but her kin lives on! Are you one of the fans of Harry Potter's Snowy Owl? And do you feel sorry for the loss of Hedwig? Do not despair! Now you can follow the relatives of this famous and magnificent bird, as they wander across the Arctic.
(Click on the images for larger versions and info)
This summer, three adult snowy owls, nicknamed Albertine, Høst and Yngvar (the two first are females, the last a male), were equipped with satellite transmitters in Northern Norway. They were all breeding, but food became scarce when the chicks were hatching, and only a few of the offspring survived.
Snowy owls are the largest raptors of the high Arctic. They have specialized on a diet of lemmings and other rodents, but when food get scarce, they may even hunt big birds. However, to start breeding they need rodents, and when they are not to be found, the snowy owls may migrate thousands of kilometres to find their preferred prey.
Snowy owls equipped with satellite transmitters in 1999 in Barrow, Alaska, crossed the Bering Strait the following autumn and spent the next summer along the Russian Arctic coast. One year later they were back in Arctic Canada! Due to the satellite transmitters of Albertine, Høst and Yngvar we now have the opportunity to find out if Scandinavian snowy owls participate in the same kind of long migrations between breeding seasons. They may fly to Russia, Greenland, or even to the British Islands, but hitherto we have had no means of knowing.
From now on you have the possibility to follow this epic adventure! Visit this web site and follow Albertine, Høst and Yngvar. If you live in the far north, they may even come to a hunting field close to You!
Contact
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Yngvar started westward movements after having spent most of the summer 2008 on the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. On the 4th of October he had reached the western shore of the Yamal Peninsula, and the latest plot so far confirms that he is now back on the Kola Peninsula, not far from the area where he overwintered in 2007/2008. Høst carried on southwards on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago in the second half of August and stayed for some time on the Vaygatch island close to where Albertine spent the whole summer until we received her last signals for the season on the 30. August. Høst kept on for almost another month, and moved to the mainland to the south of Vaygatch, from where we received her last plots for the season on the 26th of September.
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The Snowy Owl satellite tracking is a cooperation project between:
- Agder Museum of Natural History & Botanical Garden, Roar Solheim
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Karl-Otto Jacobsen
- Norwegian Ornithological Society (NOF), Ingar Jostein Øien
The snowy Owl project receives economical support from Norwegian Ornithological Society’s Snowy Owl Grant, Directorate for nature management, The County Governors in Nord-Trøndelag, Nordland and Troms.
More about the Snowy Owl project in Norwegian
- The movements of three Snowy Owls NEW!
- The occurrence of Snowy Owls in Norway
- The Snowy Owl Albertine is on the air!
- The first Norwegian Snowy Owls with satellite transmitters
