Well, the grind has continued, but thankfully, so have the owls. We’ve been able to band on 32 of 33 nights so far this summer and have banded 483 owls; 461 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and 22 Long-eared Owls. We mentioned in our previous posts that we were not expecting it to be a peak for NSWO breeding this summer, but have been banding them in good numbers all season. Saw-whets are on a four to five year breeding cycle, meaning that they have peaks in breeding success every four to five years. Since we began the summer banding in 2006, peaks occurred in 2007, 2012 and 2017, so we were not expecting another peak until next year or 2022. We have now banded 430 juvenile NSWO this summer, which puts a few ahead of the the 426 banded during their last peak in 2017. Not knowing where these birds are coming from, and having no other stations doing this type of summer owl banding, we have no insight into what is happening this summer, but we’re glad the saw-whets had a good breeding season.
The season’s 400th juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl.
Briseis Underwing
Little Nymph
Chris Neri & Hannah Toutonghi
WPBO Summer Owl Banders
