It’s hard to believe that this is the fifteenth year of summer owl banding. A lot of sweat has gone into working in the woods at night through July and August over the years. Thanks to the mosquitoes, even more of our blood has gone into this project. I have been fortunate to have great banding partners during the summer seasons, and I’m very happy that Hannah Toutonghi is back for her second season. Last summer we had a brutal stretch of 46 consecutive nights without a night off. You learn a lot about yourself and others when stretched that thin. I can’t say that we stayed upbeat towards the end of that stretch, but with Hannah’s help, we did power through it.
Things have gotten off to a nice start this summer. We have been able to open every night since we started on July 1 and have banded 90 owls; 84 Northern Saw-whet Owls and six Long-eared Owls. It seems like the saw-whets may have had a bit of an early breeding season this year. Adult saw-whet numbers are at their peak at the start of the summer season, whereas, juvenile numbers typically build over the first couple of weeks. The first night of the season this year, we banded 18 juveniles and two adults. That ratio has effectively continued, and we have now banded 70 juveniles and 14 adults. Hopefully the nights will continue to be busy, and we will actually get a night off before August 16 this summer.
Adult (left) & juvenile (right) Northern Saw-whet Owls.
This juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl was the 4,000 owl banded during WPBO’s summer owl research.
In addition to the owls, we always enjoy the moths during the summer nights. We were treated to a couple of our favorites in recent nights.
At about an inch in length, the marking on the Wavy Chestnut Y are amazingly intricate.
St. Lawrence Tiger Moth.
Chris Neri & Hannah Toutonghi WPBO Summer Owl Banders
