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).
Not much activity during the last week due to so much rain, but there is finally a break in the rain that promises a few good nights for banding. Over the last week:
The season’s first Boreal Owl showed up on Sep. 6.
Over the past few nights:
Sep 8: 1 Northern Saw-whet Owl (rain closed things down early)
Sep 6: 3 Northern Saw-whets and one Boreal Owl
Sep 5: 4 Northern Saw-whets
Sep 3: 2 Northern Saw-whets.
All of these birds (Sep 3 – Sep 8) were hatch-year birds except for the Boreal Owl (2nd year).
Our thousandth Northern Saw-whet showed up last night.
Although we hit the thousandth owl banded last fall, this was the thousandth of this species banded here in the 7+ seasons of banding.
Recent results:
The owl banding project has started for the Fall 2016 season. Nets were set up in mid-August and have been opened for several nights now that weather has permitted.
As of Aug 29, 9 new hatch-year Northern Saw-whets have been banded. The first bird caught this season was a return visitor from last October.
Weather looks good for banding the next several nights.
The first Western Screech Owl for this location was banded tonight (Nov 4). The audio lure has included 5 min. of Western Screech Owl per hour for the last six years here, but it hasn’t been successful at attracting one until tonight.
No other owls were banded tonight.
Western Screech Owl
Western Screech Owl
Western Screech Owl
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