January 17, 2014
Page 9
The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch
FROM PAGE 8
town of Reed's Beach, where he
spent a week. Leaving Reed's
Beach, "Assateague" flew across
southern New Jersey in the middle
of the night and followed the Tuck-
ahoe River toward the Jersey shore
before flying up the coast to Atlantic
City, where he spent some time on
the famous Steel Pier. "Assa-
teague" then continued up the Jer-
sey coast to Brigantine, completing
a journey of 100 straight-line miles
or 150 flying miles from where he
started on Assateague just 11 days
earlier.
By contrast, a second snowy owl
tagged under Project SNOWstorm
in central Wisconsin on Dec. 23 has
not shown the same wanderlust as
his Assateague relative. Named
"Buena Vista" for the area in Wis-
consin where he was first observed
and later tagged, that snowy owl
has rarely ventured more than a
mile or so from where the transmit-
ter was first affixed.
"Assateague" has not been heard
from for several days, but scientists
are not overly concerned. Project
SNOWstorm officials believe the owl
has likely moved into an area with
limited cell phone coverage, which
will not impact the GPS data. The
units continue to re-cord locations
around the clock, even if the owl
moves out of cell tower range. Once
"Assateague" moves back into trans-
mitter range, a fresh pile of back-
logged data showing his recent
whereabouts will become available,
according to Samis.
"Although `Assateague' is out of
range now, the transmitter is still
collecting information, which will au-
tomatically download once the bird
is back in range," she said. "Assa-
teague has traveled well over 250
miles since being fit with the trans-
mitter, from here to Delaware to
New Jersey. Already, we're seeing
differences in movement and beha-
vior that could help us better under-
stand these birds."
From the outset, Project SNOW-
storm set a fundraising goal of
$20,000 for more transmitters to
track the snowy owl irruption in the
local area and across much of the
eastern U.S. Less than two weeks
into the fundraising effort conducted
on Indiegogo, just over $19,000 has
been raised. Samis said this week
the $20,000 will be used specifically
for transmitters, but the fundraising
efforts will continue after the goal is
reached and donations will continue
to be accepted.
"Additional dollars will be used to
fund more research, toxicology
screenings, necropsies when dead
birds are found, etc." she said. "The
more money they raise, the more
research they can do, gleaning as
much information as possible about
this event. We really don't know a
lot about snowy owls and this is our
big chance to learn a lot more."
Later this month, the Ward Mu-
seum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury
University is hosting a panel discus-
sion on the snowy owl irruption and
the research it has inspired. Samis
will be joined on the panel by ecolo-
gist David Brinker and state wildlife
veterinarian Cindy Driscoll, both of
Maryland DNR. The program is set
for Wednesday, Jan. 20, from 4-6
p.m. at the Ward Museum of Wild-
fowl Art.
... Winter Irruption Not Expected To End Soon
A snowy owl is pictured at the
Delaware Seashore State Park.
Photo by Sharon Lynn
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