This winter has been great for seeing snowy owls in the northeastern U.S. as lots of them have come down from the Arctic for a visit.   Lauri Shaffer photographed these two at Plum Island, Massachusetts near Boston early this month.

Snowy owls love wide open landscapes so they’re often attracted to airports.  One was seen at Pittsburgh International Airport in January but birders couldn’t go see it because it was in a secured area.

When an owl chooses Boston’s Logan Airport, Norman Smith (director at Blue Hills Trailside Museum) is called in to capture and relocate the owl for the safety of the bird and the planes.  In this video from Massachusetts Audubon, he releases Snowy Owl #26 at Duxbury Beach on January 29.    See the story of this owl at Massachusetts Audubon’s blog post, Releasing Snowy Owl #26.

Norman is one of the founders of Project SNOWSTORM, a project that fits snowy owls with transmitters to track their movements.  It’s been such a productive winter that the project is now tracking 24 owls!   Watch their movements online at the Project SNOWSTORM website.

Even though our weather may be crazy hot and cold, it’s been a “snowy” winter.

(photos above by Lauri Shaffer at birdingpictures.com, video from YouTube by Massachusetts Audubon, photo below by Kate St.John)

p.s. Last week I saw a snowy owl in Mercer County, PA, shown in a (lousy!) photo taken through my scope.  The owl was much better in real life.