What Happens to Snowy Owls in Spring?

Activity: Will the Snowy Owl Nest This Year? Lemming Index Simulation

Owls

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Spring is when a snowy owl either goes home to nest or goes searching for the next place food makes nesting possible.

Activity: Will the Snowy Owl Nest This Year? Lemming Index Simulation

Goal: show that breeding isn’t guaranteed. It depends on food.

CER writing:

Claim: This year, snowy owls will ____
Evidence: lemming index plus scenario impacts
Reasoning: energy plus time plus prey availability

This teaches that migration and breeding are decisions shaped by ecology, not feelings.

Questions to ask

Will the Snowy Owl Nest This Year?

Where it comes from

Snowy owls feel like winter made a bird on purpose: white feathers, silent flight, and that steady, unbothered stare that says, “Yes, I was built for blizzards.”

So when spring shows up, the obvious question is:

Read the blog post ↗ What Happens to Snowy Owls in Spring? · 2026-03-09

Run it

Ticks stay in this browser, so you can set up now and teach later.

What you need

a simple lemming index chart: Low, Medium, High
scenario cards: late snow, early melt, predator pressure, abundant prey
optional graph paper

Steps

Give groups a lemming index for the year, random draw.
Groups decide breed or roam .
If breeding, they plan a tundra nest on a map and justify the site.
If roaming, they select an open habitat further south and justify why it matches tundra hunting style.

00:00

Workspace

Run it with your class

Set up the class, count what needs counting, write down what happened, then save it and take it with you. Everything here stays in this browser until you download it.

The class

Class or group Date Students Students per group

Counters

Results table

Notes as you go

Step 1: Give groups a lemming index for the year, random draw. Groups decide: breed or roam . Step 3: If breeding, they plan a tundra nest on a map and justify the site. Step 4: If roaming, they select an open habitat further south and justify why it matches tundra hu Anything else: what worked, what to change

Answers to the questions

Will the Snowy Owl Nest This Year?

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