Things started picking up a bit last night.
Six owls were banded: four hatch-year Northern Saw-whets and two hatch-year Boreal Owls.
The Boreals were the first for this season. Only three Boreals were banded during Fall 2016 (down considerably from previous years), so this is a good start.
Boreal Owl banded on Sep 4, 2017
Three hatch-year Northern Saw-whets were banded last night, bringing the season total to 8 so far. Nets were open for 4 hours (10pm-2am).
My new nets arrived from Avinet today, so some work was done on the setup. Two of my old nets were full of repaired holes and trammels, so a couple of new nets makes a nice improvement.
The rain finally cleared; this was the first clear night in about a week. Feeling like summer’s almost over with temperatures in the low 40’s.
One hatch-year Northern Saw-whet was banded, bringing the season total to 5.
Two hatch-year Northern Saw-whets were banded on Aug 27. Nets were open for 2.5 hours.
The following week was full of rain; nets weren’t opened.
After too much rain over the last week, nets were finally set up yesterday and the season’s first two Northern Saw-whets were banded last night. Both were hatch-year birds; one female and one male.
I don’t yet have all of the nets set up; I’m waiting on a new net order to arrive (sometime this week). But I have the net that is usually the most productive set up (a 9M net facing a stand of spruce). I’ve also added another 12M net in a new position this season, and it caught one of last night’s two owls.
The 2016 owl banding season here ended on Oct 31.
2016 turned out to be a very average season; a total of 135 owls were banded.
Totals:
Northern Saw-whet Owl: 132
Boreal Owl: 3
Recaptures from previous years: 2 (both Saw-whets)
The Boreal Owl numbers are the lowest seen in eight years (down from a high of 56 in 2011).
Totals for the season can be seen to the right. Comparisons with previous years can be seen here.
Slow going, one or two owls per night on nights that I could open; lots of bad weather for banding lately. I plan to close down the daily banding effort at the end of the month, although I might open nets a few times for the first couple of weeks in November.
We’re past the mid-late Sep peak, but still banding between 1-6 owls per night.
All of the owls banded over the last week have been hatch-year birds.
After-second-year Northern Saw-whet Owl wing under blacklight. Three ages of feathers evident.
A few days of banding missed over the last week due to illness and weather.
Things have picked up a little over the last couple of nights, despite the bright moon.
The incoming storm makes it pretty certain that there will be no banding tomorrow night (Sep 20).
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