We’re approaching the end of the owl banding season and things are slowing down here. It’s been below freezing for the last several nights. I’m seeing at most 1-2 owls per night now.

Totals for the season so far:

As of Oct 1, banding totals are as follows:

Two previously-banded Northern Saw-whets were captured; both were banded here in previous years- one originally banded in 2020, and one in 2022.

The season’s first Boreal Owl showed up on Sep 21.

Tonight I added Snowshoe Hare to the list of non-owls that I’ve had to extract from the mistnets.

Banding continues to be slow, with 49 Saw-whets and 2 Boreals banded during this season to date. The setup also caught a Great Horned Owl a few nights ago, but it extracted itself before I could get to it.

Weather continues to look bad for banding in the immediate future, likely continuing the trend of daily rain (or snow, in today’s case).

Banding continues to be a slow-going process here, with many unproductive nights.
Rain, wind, and moose have prevented opening nets for owl banding on many nights this month.

Many rainy nights, and when there isn’t rain, there’s wind. And when there isn’t wind, the local moose are hanging out in the middle of the trapping setup.

So far, 26 Northern Saw-whet Owls and 1 Boreal Owl have been banded during the Fall 2022 season. Additionally, we’ve had one returning owl that was originally banded here two years ago.

The last week of September is typically the most active for banding here. Here’s hoping things pick up a bit soon.

We’re off to a slow start; poor weather conditions have limited the number of banding nights so far.

As of Sep 12, a total of 8 Northern Saw-whets and one Boreal Owl have been banded. Additionally, one previously-banded Saw-whet made a return visit.

Hopefully we’ll see an increase in activity (and better weather) over the next couple of weeks.

The banding station is up and running for the Fall 2022 season.

The official start date is Sep 1, but an early test netted one Northern Saw-whet on the night of August 28. This was a hatch-year bird.

Starting Sep 1, I’ll be opening the nets every night that weather permits.

Thanks to Betsy for the help with station setup, and to Jess for visiting the setup on Sunday night!

Still catching owls most every night that weather allows. Nets have not been opened on several nights this month due to rain/wind/snow/ice.

Banding has picked up a little over the last week or so. Although it’s still a comparatively slow season, I’ve been banding at least a few owls every night lately.

And tonight, at almost midnight, a bright green meteor lit up the sky while I was out checking the nets. I had never seen one quite so bright/close. A couple of minutes later, a loud, distant explosion was heard from the north. It should be interesting to learn more about this event; I’ve already heard of other sightings around Homer and from communities to the north.

The owl banding setup is up and running again with a brand new set of nets. Nets have only been open a few nights over the last week due to weather; still slow-going but a few owls are starting to show up: