Where: Mass Audubon Headquarters, Lincoln
Who: Massachusetts transplant by way of Florida and New York. Raising two young girls, who she hopes will be budding naturalists
Favorite part of the job: Learning something new every day from some of the smartest and most enthusiastic groups of people
If you have a bird feeder in Massachusetts, there’s a very good chance you have witnessed the antics of the tufted titmouse. They may not look it, but titmice are bold as brass, harassing intruders in their territory with their harsh scold calls and even stealing tufts of fur from sleeping mammals to use in lining their nests. Learn more about these furtive birds and check out five great images.
On Saturday, in the early morning while most of us were sleeping, Norman Smith, Sanctuary Director at Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, was at Logan Airport. He wasn’t there to catch a flight, though. He was there to catch a snowy owl.
Snowy owls are drawn to the airport due to its tundra-like landscape, which mimics their summer breeding grounds in the Arctic, and plenty of rodents to dine on. Over the last 35 years, Smith has relocated some 700 snowy owls.
Smith left the airport on Saturday with an adult male owl. Upon further inspection, he discovered it had a band, one that Smith placed on the owl in March 2014. (As a side note, last winter Smith captured an owl that he originally banded 23 years ago!)
Norman Smith, with the help of his granddaughters, releases Salisbury.
Before releasing the owl on Sunday at Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Smith gave “Salisbury” a new, high-tech gadget: a solar-paneled transmitter courtesy of Project SNOWstorm. This allows Smith, the researchers at Project SNOWstorm, and the public to track and study the owl as it travels back north to its breeding grounds.
Read about the release in the Boston Globeand find out more about the Snowy Owl Project, including how you can support this important work.
Watch a video of the release
Follow Salisbury via the Project SNOWstorm Transmitter
