by Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley
We want to start by thanking everyone who attended Spring Fling this past weekend. Your support, interest and encouragement is truly appreciated. Although we’ve given a presentation on WPBO’s long term owl research during Spring Fling for years, doing so as the keynote speakers this year was admittedly a bit out of our comfort zone. Thankfully, it was a great and responsive crowd that helped to quickly calm our nerves. Our one regret is that we failed to take the opportunity to publicly thank Rich & Brenda Keith. In every organization, there are people behind the scenes whose contributions to specific programs are invaluable. For us and the owl banding those people are Rich & Brenda. We can’t thank them enough for the positive impact they have had on our experience at WPBO over the years.
Presenting at this year’s Spring Fling banquet. Photo Brenda Keith.
We mentioned in our last post that we had a little push of Northern Saw-whets at the end of the night of the 20th, providing some hope that things might finally pick up. Thankfully, the nights have indeed become much more productive since then. In the last nine nights we have banded 128 Saw-whets, 8 Boreals, 18 Long-eareds and one Barred. We also caught four previously banded Saw-whets and one banded Long-eared during these nights. Long-eared owl recaptures are pretty uncommon, so they’re always exciting. We originally banded this owl last spring, at which time we determined that it had hatched in 2016. We learn a lot about aging Long-eareds from recaptures, so we’re naturally hopeful that we will get more recaptures from the 853 we banded in the last two years. Another exciting recapture was one of the Saw-whets that we banded last summer as a juvenile. Many raptors don’t survive their first winter, so we’re always happy to see one of our juveniles that has made through to the spring. We banded him on the 4th of July last year, we wonder if he was expecting more fireworks during his return to the Point.
A male Northern Saw-whet Owl that we originally banded as a juvenile on July 4, 2017
Some of the Snowy Owls that have spent the winter in the Lower 48 have started their return trip to the arctic. The male Snowy Owl, named Pennington, that we fitted with a Project Snowstorm transmitter in Pickford on February 2 may have passed by the Point last week on his return trip. When he checked in last Wednesday evening he was on Whitefish Bay between the Tahquamenon river mouth and Paradise. On Thursday Louie saw a Snowy migrating out over the bay. It was too distant to see if it had a transmitter, but it may have been Pennington, who had moved out of cell coverage by his transmitter’s next scheduled check in on Friday evening. We’re hoping he will hit cell coverage somewhere on the remainder of his journey, but it is very possible that he won’t.
Pennington’s last known position.
Although Pennington may have snuck by us, there were a few Snowy Owls seen this weekend. After giving the keynote presentation, then banding all night and giving the morning owl program, Nova and I were winding down on our deck when a Snowy cut right through our yard. It unexpectedly even came too close to fit the whole bird in the frame. It was an appropriate end to a special day. Thanks again to all who attended this year’s Spring fling!
A Snowy Owl buzzing our house.
