Although the juvenile Saw-whets have become more regular since our last post, we are still waiting for them to pick up more. The weather conditions have not been great for migration, but we have banded all 19 nights since we started.The highest nightly total for juveniles so far has been four, on both the 11th and 18th. We had the season’s best push of 10 adults on the 12th, but they are definitely winding down now. We have had three more recaptures since the last post, including a juvenile and an adult from last summer. The Long-eareds remain sporadic, but they are typically more regular later in the season. So far we have banded 38 adults, 23 juveniles and five Long-eareds. Aside from the owls, we recently enjoyed visits from waterbird counter Alison Vilag and some folks from Long Point Bird Observatory and Holiday Beach Migration Observatory. We’ve seen some of the photos of the flooding at LPBO on their Facebook page, so it was interesting to get a first hand account of what they are dealing with there right now. Just a heads up for anyone planning to visit on Friday or Saturday nights, the owl banding starts in relation to sunset, so it changes throughout the year and our first net check is late this time of year. We are currently returning from the first net check at around 11:30.
A juvenile Saw-whet molting in its facial disc.
Aside from killing mosquitoes and getting startled by baby skunks, we enjoy moth watching between checks on the slow nights.
A close-up of a Laurel Sphinx moth.
Chris Neri & Hannah Toutonghi
