Long-eared Owl

We published our last post halfway through the night of March 31. The owls had been slow for a few nights and had continued to be slow up to that point in the night. We had no reason to believe that would change during the remainder of the night, but it did. The owl migration kicked in during the final few hours of the night and we ended with 24 Northern Saw-whets & one Barred Owl. So, I jumped the gun a bit in the last post as this pushed our March totals up to 89 Saw-whets & two Barreds.

The push that started late that night has continued. We were unable to band last night due to high winds, and scattered showers limited our efforts on the third. Otherwise, April has gotten off to a very nice start. So far this month we have banded 152 Saw-whets, nine Long-eareds & two Barreds. This brings the season total to date up to 241 Saw-whets, nine Long-eareds & four Barreds. We had been disappointed through March at the lack of any previously banded Saw-whets, but during this push we have also captured 14 Saw-whets with bands. In addition to the owls, we’ve been enjoying a Northern Flying Squirrel’s nighttime visits to the feeders. The forecast for the coming nights has a serious mix of good conditions along with other periods of rain and high winds. Hopefully the openings we get will continue to be productive.

Northern Flying Squirrel

Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley