Where: Mass Audubon Headquarters, Lincoln | Who: A Vermont ex-pat, lifelong skier, musician, photographer, motorcycle enthusiast, budding native plant gardener, and pun master | Favorite part of the job: Working with wonderful colleagues to make nature accessible to everyone
It has been quite a year, to say the least. Many folks use Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on the past year and give thanks for the goodness in their lives, especially in challenging times. While 2020 has certainly been challenging, we have also seen more people than ever getting outdoors at our sanctuaries and discovering the powerful benefits that time in the outdoors brings to our physical and mental well-being. So what better way to give thanks and give back than spending more time in nature?
This year, Mass Audubon is encouraging as many people as possible to get outside and hike with us the weekend after Thanksgiving during Hike-a-thon 2020. Anyone can join Hike-a-thon from anywhere, and all types of hikes are encouraged, from a stroll around the neighborhood to trying out one of our universally accessible All Persons Trails to taking on a challenging summit hike. You can even join a naturalist-guided walk hosted by one of our sanctuaries!
And since it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without some wild turkey photos, here are five shots of turkeys out for a “Turkey Trot” of their own from our annual Picture This: Your Great Outdoors photo contest.
They’re here! Snowy Owls have arrived from their breeding grounds in the Arctic and can be spotted at Plum Island, Duxbury Beach, and other open, treeless areas near the coast through March—if you make the trip to see Snowy Owls this winter, please protect these beautiful raptors by viewing them from a safe and respectful distance at public sites and do not approach them.
Norman Smith, the former director of Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, is keeping busy in his retirement by continuing his Snowy Owl rescue and research efforts: The first report of a Snowy Owl at Logan Airport this season came in on November 5, so he hurried down to capture the owl, take some measurements and research notes, and release it at Duxbury Beach.
Norman reports that it was a healthy “hatch-year” bird (meaning it was born this past summer), which suggests there was good breeding this year in the region of the Arctic where this particular owl was born. Historically, since he started with the Snowy Owl Project in 1981, Norman would capture almost all hatch-year birds, but the past several winters saw predominantly adults arriving in Massachusetts, a poor sign for breeding success. Norman says his colleagues in Greenland reported their best breeding year since 1998 this past summer, while others in Barrow, Alaska, reported no breeding at all, so it can vary dramatically by location due to a number of factors, including climate change.
Snowy Owls predominantly feed on rodents called lemmings, so the success of lemming populations affects Snowy Owl populations: when there’s a boom in lemmings, we see a rise in the number of hatch-year owls traveling south. Lemmings are now facing increased pressure from climate change, such as rising temperatures, milder winters, shifting weather patterns, and changes in vegetation, which makes breeding success more difficult. So a decline in hatch-year Snowy Owls can signal climate impacts across entire food chains.
