The first Boreal Owls of the season arrived this week. Lots of owls being banded every night that the nets have been open; no banding for three nights mid-week due to weather.

Total as of Sep 18: 167 Northern Saw-whet Owls, 2 Boreal Owls banded.

Sep 10: 20 Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year birds.
Sep 9: 17 Saw-whets banded, one 2nd year, the rest hatch-year birds.

Both nights were cooler, clear and dark, with later moon rise times. Lots of vocalizations could be heard from owls close to the setup.

As of Sep 10, the 2020 banding total has exceeded that of all of 2019, and this is still early in the season. The typical peak of the season is usually in late September.

No banding tonight (Sep 8) due to a moose and her calf hanging out in the middle of the net area. This last week’s banding included the first adult Saw-whet banded this season. Early-season numbers are way up compared to the last several years.

Over the last week:

Sep 7: 7 Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year
Sep 6: No banding due to rain/wind
Sep 5: 8 Saw-whets banded, one 2nd year bird, the rest hatch-year
Sep 4: 7 Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year
Sep 3: 8 Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year
Sep 2: 3 Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year

Lots of rain/wind over the last week left few good banding nights, but the few banding nights were productive. Still only keeping nets open for a couple of hours per night due to the late starting times.

Sep 1: 9 hatch-year Saw-whets banded
Aug 31: 4 hatch-year Saw-whets banded
Aug 28: 7 hatch-year Saw-whets banded
Aug 23: 5 hatch-year Saw-whets banded

Total for the season as of Sep 2: 38 Northern Saw-whets banded, all hatch-year birds.

The 2020 banding season started off here last night with nine Northern Saw-whet Owls banded. All were hatch-year birds.

The nets were only open for two hours; it’s still not dark enough to to open nets until around 10:45pm. Opening time will get earlier fairly quickly through the next month.

The net arrangement is the same as last year, with three 9m nets surrounding the audio lure, and an additional 12m net south of the lure, along the edge of the spruce stand there. Two new nets were purchased this year to replace the two lost to moose towards the end of last season.

The banding season is just about over for 2019; the planned end date is Oct 31 (tonight).
I’ll probably extend the effort by a week or so due to all of the rained-out nights over the last several days.

Banding has remained slow throughout this season. As of tonight, 100 owls have been banded. Owl #100 arrived during the last net check of the last scheduled night of banding. In addition to the new bireds banded, two owls previously banded here made return visits; one of these recaptured birds was a Northern Saw-whet Owl that was originally banded here 5 years ago in 2014.

Of the new birds banded, six were Boreal Owls, making this among the slowest Boreal seasons we’ve had here.

Banding continues to be slow, as it has all season so far. Typical nights have resulted in just a couple of owls banded. Boreal Owl numbers are way down compared to previous seasons; only two have been banded so far.

The owl recaptured on Oct 7 was originally banded here in September 2014 as a hatch-year bird, making this a 5th year bird. This owl had some apparently abnormal feather growth next to one eye:

Banding is still slower than expected for this time of year- the last couple of weeks in September are usually the most active for the season. We’re catching owls, but just a few (1-6) per night.

All birds banded this week were hatch-year birds.