Before we jump into the owls, we want to give a quick mention of what has been going on at WPBO. After the announcement at last year’s Spring Fling that Michigan Audubon Society (MAS) would be taking over operations at WPBO this transition became a regular topic of conversation at the Point. The departure of MAS executive director Jonathan Lutz last fall naturally added more uncertainty to the conversation. We were very unhappy to find out that Jonathan was leaving, but that is because he was always such a positive influence on our experience at WPBO. We thank him for his kindness and wish him the best of luck at his new position at the Montana Audubon Center. Upon Jonathan’s departure MAS board chair Dr. Alec Lindsay took the lead on the WPBO transition. Simply put, Alec has had a significant positive impact on everything he has put his mind to, from the staff housing, to signage at the Point, to data collection. Now that MAS has hired Heather Good as their new executive director we’re even more excited. We would be lying if we said this whole thing wasn’t a bit scary for us, and many of you WPBO supporters voiced concerns to us last year, but we’re excited about the way things are going here at the Point and we’re very happy to be back working with the owls again this spring.
Now for the owls. The season got off to a decent start. The mild winter produced a nice start to the season and although the weather patterns in March were not great we banded a total of 100 Northern Saw-whets and 33 Long-eared Owls from March 14-31. Since moving the start date from April 1 to March 14 back in 2007 we have had mixed results, seriously mixed results. In 2012 we banded 371 owls in March, including the biggest night of the season when we banded 93 Saw-whets on March 14. We were pretty impressed with ourselves and proud of the change to the start date. Then in 2014 we only banded 2 owls in March. We were pretty unhappy with ourselves and seriously questioned the change in the start date. So this March was better, far better, than the last three springs, but considerably lower than what we have experienced in some other early springs.
If you’ve read the other blogs you know that April started off miserably. Second winter hit us during the first 11 days of April. We were unable to open during much of early April, but even on nights when we could open and conditions seemed good there was virtually nothing moving. We only banded two owls from April 1-11, both Long-eared Owls. The weather finally broke on April 12, and even though conditions have not been great, things have picked up. Over the last three nights we have banded 10 Northern Saw-whets and 27 Long-eared Owls. Unless the Saw-whets pick up significantly, it looks like we are going to experience our third spring in a row when their numbers are very low. Thankfully, with 62 already banded this season, Long-eared Owls seem to be rebounding from their low numbers the last two springs.
Female (left) & Male (right) Long-eared Owls
Even though the start of April was rough, this image of the Point and Bay
from this time last year is a reminder of how rough it could be.
Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley
