Snowy owl research on Mount Desert Island

Morrell, Ellizabeth

From Official Introduction: “Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) have been reported as winter visitor to the Northeastern United States since the pre-colonial period (Strong, 1934). Over the last 100 years there have been documented reports of these birds on Mount Desert Island (MDI) and other islands along the Maine coast (Deane, 1906) Snowy owls usually migrate south from their summering grounds in the arctic tundra, presumable for more easily obtainable prey (Gross, 1927) During winter 2009-2010. I worked with Acadia National Park Resource Management staff to research the current presence and abundance of snowy owls on MDI and the habitat use. This study had three objectives: 1) to observe snowy owls to better understand their behavior and habitat use on MDI, 2) to identify an indicator species for predicting snowy owl migration patterns among other migratory birds, 3) to identify correlations between the habitat types of different Maine cost islands where snowy owls have been reported in the past. The islands included Great Duck, Petit Mannan, Richmond, Great Cranberry, Seal, Schoodic and MDI (Deane, 1906). These three objectives showed it is very difficult to observe such elusive birds; snowy owl migrations patterns do not necessarily correlate with those of other bird migrations and that there is no correlation of habitat types between the Maine islands which I compared…”Snowy owl observation sheets are attached at the end of the report.

Snowy owl research on Mount Desert Island

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