A few good nights during this last week, and a few rained-out nights.

Sep 11: 1 Boreal owl, 1 Saw-whet.

Sep 15: 8 Saw-whets.

Sep 16: 1 Saw-whet; closed early due to wind.

Nine owls banded tonight, all saw-whets.  All but one were hatch year birds.  The single adult was a second year bird.

Also banded the season’s first Boreal on Sunday night (Sep 7).

Season totals so far: 20 Northern Saw-whets and 1 Boreal owl.

Nets were put up for the season during the weekend of Aug. 23.
We’ve opened nets a few nights since then. Eight NSWO have been banded
so far on nights that weren’t too rainy or windy.

The last planned banding date was Oct 31. I opened again last night (Nov 2), but didn’t catch anything; I haven’t caught
any new owls for a couple of weeks now. I did have a few repeat visits from owls banded earlier in the season.

I’ll probably try a few more times in the next couple of weeks, but I plan to have the nets disassembled by mid November.

This was definitely better than last season, but numbers were still lower than the first three years. This season’s results bring the total number of owls banded to 750 during the five seasons of operation.

Banding has been really slow over the last week due in large part to the weather- wind and rain almost every night.
Nets were opened four nights over the last week, and closed early two of those nights due to weather.

• Oct 13: One Northern Saw-whet owl
• Oct 16: One Northern Saw-whet owl and one Boreal owl.
• Oct 18: Participants in the Kachemak Bay Birders owling trip visited, but we didn’t see any owls.

Banding has been very slow over the last few days due to weather; wind and rain every night this week, with more of the same in the forecast.
Only two new Northern Saw-whets banded- one each on the nights of the 8th and 9th.

Biggest night of the season so far with 8 owls caught.

• Oct 4: 2 Northern Saw-whet Owls. Visitors included the young birders’ group (the “F.B.I.”): Erick, Nolan, Landon, Griffin, and Owen, and parents Lori and Susan.
• Oct 5: Didn’t open nets; too windy.
• Oct 6: 6 new Northern Saw-whet Owls and 1 recapture of a Saw-whet banded 33 days ago; 1 Boreal Owl. Betsy Rogers assisted.