We’ve been able to band 22 of 23 nights so far, and the strong start to the season has continued. To date, we have banded 316 Northern Saw-whet Owls and 13 Long-eared Owls. Of the saw-whets, 28 have been adults and 288 have been juveniles. The 288 juveniles is our best total for a non-peak year. We mentioned in a previous post that the saw-whets have thrown us a couple curves in recent years. The last time we were at this point in the saw-whet’s reproductive cycle, we unexpectedly had our lowest total for juveniles since we started the summer banding in 2006. We’re still far from the numbers we’ve seen in peak years, but there is a lot of the season left. We shall have to wait and see what the rest of the season brings.
A juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl puffing up her incredible soft juvenile feathers.
Our biggest non-owl surprise since our last post was suddenly having a Black Witch fly at us while we were on a net check. Black Witches are huge, beautiful southern moths that are known to sometimes stray to the north. It was incredible to experience one at the Point.
The Point’s first Black Witch.
Chris Neri & Hannah Toutonghi
WPBO summer owl banders.
