Hawk Mountain Sanctuary will host “Snowy Owls of the Canadian Arctic,” a free, 5 p.m. lecture and slideshow on September 29 by Dr. Jean-Francois Therrien, the Senior Research Biologist at the Sanctuary.

During the talk, Therrien will share his first-hand accounts, photos and findings from the five years he spent tracking the movements of this ghostly and unpredictable avian predator of the north.

The lecture is part of the Sanctuary’s annual Autumn Lecture Series. All talks are held at 5 p.m. in the Visitor Center gallery and are free of charge. The series is designed to share the latest in scientific wildlife research and natural history findings in an informative yet entertaining format.

Dr. Therrien’s talk will cover the bird’s biology, the culture of the local people, the landscape of the Arctic, and the results of his satellite telemetry work which he said were surprising.

“We found that Snowy Owls are completely unpredictable, perhaps more so than any other bird I know,” he said.

“They don’t actually migrate at all, but move anywhere and everywhere. For example, one year we had 20 to 40 nests over a 100 km square region, and then the next three years we had none,” he explained.

Therrien is still a collaborator on the long-term research project, which is part of a 20-year study of the raptor. He also has been invited to collaborate and advise on a new study by the National Fish and Wildlife Service to replicate the work with Snowy Owls in Alaska.

Other Special Lectures

Two additional lectures will be held in October and include:

-- Pennsylvania’s Breeding Birds October 13—Dan Brauning, Chief of Wildlife Diversity,

Game Commission. Thousands of hours of surveys over six years have resulted in Pennsylvania’s Second Breeding Bird Atlas, available later this autumn. Brauning will share an insider’s view, and point out the surprising changes in our state’s wild bird populations, including a dramatic decline in ruffed grouse, a shift in horned larks, and an expansion of many big-woods birds.

-- Epic Journeys: Tracking Shorebird Migration October 27— Shawn Carey and Jim Grady, Migration Productions Naturalist, wildlife photographer and videographers Shawn Carey and Jim Grady will share the making of their latest video, which looks at three shorebird species-Red Knot, Piping Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper—and the challenges each face during their monumental annual treks. Includes jaw-dropping images and video clips.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is the world's first refuge for birds of prey and an international center for raptor conservation. An average of 18,000 hawks, eagles and falcons are recorded each autumn as they migrate past Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

For more information, please call 610-756-6961 or visit the Hawk Mountain website.

9/17/2012