Meet Buckeye!

Buckeye was a third-year female when she was captured at Detroit Metropolitan Airport by USDA WIldlife Services and relocated to northwestern Ohio. She was tagged by Mark Shieldcastle from Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and released Feb. 15, 2015, in farmland north of Oak Harbor, OH. Buckeye is part of Project SNOWstorm’s and Wildlife Services’s efforts to learn more about the most effective methods and distances to safely relocate owls from airports. She spent the summer of 2015 on the Boothia Peninsula of northern Nunavut, and the winter of 2015-16 around western Lake Erie. Her transmitter was generously sponsored by Black Swamp Bird Observatory and the Kirtland Bird Club.
Once released, she quickly headed back west and north, and appeared to be making a beeline back around Lake Erie toward Detroit, but she turned back at Toledo and instead spent the rest of the winter in rural northern Ohio — including several weeks at a small municipal airport…this bird loves airfields.
In spring she migrated north, skirting the western side of Hudson Bay and spending the summer of 2015 in the Boothia Peninsula in the Canadian Arctic, an area we have since found is very popular with many of our tagged owls. The winter of 2015-16 she migrated south to southern Ontario and northern Ohio, although by then her transmitter was becoming unreliable. We tried to organize a trapping expedition to recapture her and trade transmitters, but were unable to do so, and the last we’d heard from her was March 21, 2016, on the north shore of Lake Erie.
Now she was back, a full adult at least six years old. Selena had tried several times to catch her along the DTW runways, trying a variety of traps and lures, but in the end Selena was able to sneak up on Buckeye as the owl dozed on a snowplow. Waiting until a passing jet’s noise masked her approach, Selena made a quick dash and actually caught Buckeye with a hand net — not the first time she’s been able to do that, she told me.
Buckeye looked to be in great condition, Selena said, and the harness and transmitter were riding well and causing no problems. As you can see in the photo, the transmitter’s solar panel has seen some wear, with a lot of scratches, but otherwise it looks sound. While we won’t know for sure until the wizards at CTT get their hands on it, there’s a chance that the transmitter may have backlogged data from the past nearly four years stored in it, which would be a real treasure trove. Even if it doesn’t, removing a failed unit from a bird is always a great thing to do.
Read the full story on the Project SNOWstorm blog.
Once released, she quickly headed back west and north, and appeared to be making a beeline back around Lake Erie toward Detroit, but she turned back at Toledo and instead spent the rest of the winter in rural northern Ohio — including several weeks at a small municipal airport…this bird loves airfields.
In spring she migrated north, skirting the western side of Hudson Bay and spending the summer of 2015 in the Boothia Peninsula in the Canadian Arctic, an area we have since found is very popular with many of our tagged owls. The winter of 2015-16 she migrated south to southern Ontario and northern Ohio, although by then her transmitter was becoming unreliable. We tried to organize a trapping expedition to recapture her and trade transmitters, but were unable to do so, and the last we’d heard from her was March 21, 2016, on the north shore of Lake Erie.
Now she was back, a full adult at least six years old. Selena had tried several times to catch her along the DTW runways, trying a variety of traps and lures, but in the end Selena was able to sneak up on Buckeye as the owl dozed on a snowplow. Waiting until a passing jet’s noise masked her approach, Selena made a quick dash and actually caught Buckeye with a hand net — not the first time she’s been able to do that, she told me.
Buckeye looked to be in great condition, Selena said, and the harness and transmitter were riding well and causing no problems. As you can see in the photo, the transmitter’s solar panel has seen some wear, with a lot of scratches, but otherwise it looks sound. While we won’t know for sure until the wizards at CTT get their hands on it, there’s a chance that the transmitter may have backlogged data from the past nearly four years stored in it, which would be a real treasure trove. Even if it doesn’t, removing a failed unit from a bird is always a great thing to do.
Read the full story on the Project SNOWstorm blog.
BUCKEYE RETURNS!
On December 24, 2019 we got word from Selena Creed, a wildlife biologist at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) in Michigan. She’d just caught a snowy owl on the runway — and it was wearing a backpack transmitter. Could it be one of ours, she asked, and should she remove the unit or leave it in place when she relocated the bird to the countryside?
I knew it wasn’t one of our current owls; none have checked in anywhere near Detroit. I dug out my computer from amid all the wrapped gifts and overnight bags in the car, and while standing in a parking lot looked up the band number Selena sent. I wasn’t overly optimistic. After all, we’re not the only researchers using telemetry on snowies; the Laval University crew in Québec uses satellite tags on snowy owls in the Arctic, and several colleagues of ours are using transmitters on owls in the Canadian prairies. It could easily have been one of theirs.
But –bingo! To my surprise and delight, the band number matched Buckeye, a bird with a history at Detroit Metro, and one of the more interesting birds we’ve ever tracked.
Read the full AMAZING story on the Project SNOWstorm blog!
I knew it wasn’t one of our current owls; none have checked in anywhere near Detroit. I dug out my computer from amid all the wrapped gifts and overnight bags in the car, and while standing in a parking lot looked up the band number Selena sent. I wasn’t overly optimistic. After all, we’re not the only researchers using telemetry on snowies; the Laval University crew in Québec uses satellite tags on snowy owls in the Arctic, and several colleagues of ours are using transmitters on owls in the Canadian prairies. It could easily have been one of theirs.
But –bingo! To my surprise and delight, the band number matched Buckeye, a bird with a history at Detroit Metro, and one of the more interesting birds we’ve ever tracked.
Read the full AMAZING story on the Project SNOWstorm blog!
BUCKEYE RETURNS AND IS REFITTED WITH A TRANSMITTER
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January 17, 2020, Selena Creed returned to Black Swamp Bird Observatory with an old friend - Buckeye. Buckeye was refitted with a transmitter and released in the same place she was released when she last visited. The video is Selena Creed releasing Buckeye into a rural farm field in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photos are of Buckeye's transmitter fitting with the help from Mark Shieldcastle (BSBO), Ryan Jacob (BSBO), Ashli Gorbet (BSBO), and Selena Creed (DTW).
CLICK HERE to see the blog post from Project SNOWstorm about Buckeye's recent tagging and travels! |
Our Sincere Thanks
We are deeply grateful to Kirtland Bird Club for helping to fund the cost of the transmitter, and to USDA's Brian Washburn for his major support and hands-on assistance in trapping and tagging Buckeye!