Conservation Science Global, Inc.

We’re back for year two! Last fall, you helped us launch a cutting-edge owl tracking project in Cape May, NJ. This year, we’re expanding—deploying new-and-improved GPS backpacks and next-generation leg bands embedded with micro-transmitters. With your help, we’ll uncover where Northern Saw-whet Owls go, how long they stay, and what habitats they rely on year-round. These data are critical to conservation—but we need to act fast. The owls are coming. Will you help us track them?

Continued deployment of cutting-edge tracking technology to map the full annual cycle of Northern Saw-whet Owls

We are entering our second full field season of tracking Northern Saw-whet Owls in Cape May, New Jersey—a major stopover and overwintering site for this small, secretive species. In 2023, your donations helped us deploy seven Flicker ULP GPS transmitters, and the results were better than we could have hoped. We followed owls to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Scarborough Marsh, Maine, and Philadelphia, with others remaining in Cape May for weeks or months. These data opened a window into the migratory behavior of owls we had only guessed at before.

Now, we’re ready to go further.

New in 2025:

Together, these tools will allow us to build detailed, fine-scale maps of owl movement—not just for days or weeks, but potentially across a full year. This kind of information is essential for conservation efforts at the regional and continental scales.

And we can’t do it without you.

Why this matters

The Cape May Owl Project is a long-term research initiative dedicated to understanding the health, behavior, and ecology of migratory owls—especially those using Cape May as a seasonal stopover or winter home. While traditional bird banding has revealed important insights, it depends on chance recaptures. With telemetry, we can follow individual birds as they move across the continent, identifying critical stopover and breeding areas, migration routes, and seasonal timing.

This year, we plan to deploy at least 10 Flicker ULP GPS backpacks and a series of BlūSeries leg-band tags on Northern Saw-whet Owls captured during nocturnal banding efforts from October to December. These deployments are fully permitted at the Federal, State, and Local levels and carried out by trained researchers.

What we need

We still have a few Flicker ULP backpacks left from last year, which CTT has offered to refurbish for us with fresh batteries and updated antennas. Our first goal of $5,000 will effectively allow us to purchase 2 more Flicker ULP devices (at a steep discount) and six of the new BlūSeries leg bands.

If we can raise the full $20,000 we will be able to purchase a total of 8 Flicker ULP backpacks and 25 BlūSeries leg bands, giving us a total of 10 Flicker ULP devices, and a solid sample size of both technologies for this season.

How you can help

Bonus: What we learned in 2024

This past fall, we banded 87 owls (including a record 7 Barred Owls!) and recaptured 19 individuals across the season. Thanks to our GPS tracking efforts, we now know that many Northern Saw-whet Owls don’t just pass through Cape May—they stop over for an average of 11 days, and sometimes for more than a month. This reinforces the idea that Cape May is not just a migratory flyover—it’s essential habitat.

By continuing and expanding this work, we’re contributing to one of the most exciting conservation data sets on migratory owls in the eastern US.

Thank you!

This project is led by a dedicated team of volunteers and researchers.

We're incredibly grateful to everyone who helped make year one a success. Let's keep the momentum going.

— The Cape May Owl Project Team

David, Trish, Charlie, and Mike

Donations are tax-deductible through our nonprofit partner, Conservation Science Global, Inc.

All research is conducted under valid federal and state permits.

Rapid deployment of cutting-edge transmitters allowing us to map the full annual cycle of Northern Saw-whet Owls

TL;DR:

We have a very unique opportunity to study the full-annual-cycle of Northern Saw-whet Owls migrating through and stopping over in Cape May, New Jersey. CTT has offered to reduce the cost and rapidly produce a number of cutting-edge transmitters for our deployment over the next few weeks, IF we can raise the money to buy them. We need YOU to help us reach that goal, because normal grant opportunities take way too long and we will miss this big migration if we have to wait.

Full Proposal:

The Cape May Owl Project is a long-term research project focused on understanding how owls are doing, especially those that use the Cape May region of New Jersey for stopover and overwintering. One of those species is the small Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO). Each year, few to many NSWOs migrate through Cape May or settle into the Cape May region for a few days to several months. While banding records can provide some information on movement, if birds are recaught at different locations or during different seasons or years, telemetry devices can provide unprecedented information on the full life cycle of these tiny and cryptic owls in ways that analog systems simply cannot. This information is critical for strong conservation planning, especially for species as secretive as these birds.

Above is an example of one owl that overwintered in Cape May and which we transmittered in 2022 and tracked all the way up to the breeding grounds in Maine. The new transmitters will allow us to get a full 12 months instead of the previously available six-month battery limit.

This season is shaping up to be a big one for owl movement, and new advances in telemetry design mean that we can take advantage of this flight if we can act fast and secure funding for a requisite sample size of transmitters. Initially, we are seeking funding for 10 units to be deployed in Cape May in the winter of 2024. If we hit our goal, we will expand this to up to 20 more units for distributing to partners across the Eastern US. Unfortunately, time is not on our side, but the folks at Cellular Tracking Technologies are building these units in anticipation of our fundraising success—so now all we need is YOU to help us meet and exceed our goal. In return, we will provide updates on owl movement through emails to donors, so please consider giving a tax-deductible donation today to Conservation Science Global, our nonprofit partner in the Cape May Owl Project.

Above is an image of the CTT Flicker ULP (ultra-low-power) device, weighing less than 3 grams

Thank you, in advance, for your support.

The Cape May Owl Project Volunteers

David, Trish, Charlie, and Mike

Note: All banding and transmitter deployment is done by trained professionals with authorization and permits at the Federal, State and Local levels.



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