![]() Most winters, he rescues 10 to 12 owls his high count was 121 birds during the irruption of 2013-2014. He has captured and relocated more than 750 Snowies over nearly four decades. Despite retiring from his day job, he’ll continue his work with the owls. ![]() Norman Smith, who recently retired as sanctuary director for Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum in Milton, Massachusetts, has been rescuing Snowy Owls from Boston’s Logan Airport since 1981. The good news is that some people have worked for many years to remove owls from the dangers of being in close proximity to fast-moving planes. Photo courtesy Norman Smith Moving owls out of the way ![]() The bird had been fitted with a tracking device. Norman Smith, who removes Snowy Owls from Logan Airport in Boston, receives “assistance” from his granddaughters before releasing an owl away from the airport. In two of them, birds were hit during take-off, forcing the pilots to abort going airborne, and in the other case, an owl was ingested into an engine shortly after take-off from Chicago’s Midway Airport, and the flight was diverted to land at O’Hare. Most incidents don’t threaten airplane passengers and crew, but an FAA report about significant wildlife strikes to civil aircraft shows three involving Snowies since 1990. Kennedy International (40), Chicago’s O’Hare (39), and Detroit’s Metro Airport (32). The airports with the highest counts of strikes on Snowies are Boston’s Logan (69), New York’s John F. Wildlife strikes overall have increased in recent years, and the same is true with Snowies more than three times as many owls have been hit in the last decade than in the previous two decades. and Canada, at least 321 Snowy Owls have been killed in strikes with airplanes since 1991. ![]() According to a database of wildlife strikes maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration, in the U.S. ![]()
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