Well, our streak of good weather has come to an end. The beginning of October brought enough wind and rain to keep nets closed all or part of about half of the nights this past week. Fortunately, it seems the owls are still migrating in decent numbers as we had yet another night of over 20 owls on Oct. 3. That night put us over 150 saw-whets banded in the first three weeks of the season! The milestone was a particularly pleasant surprise after so much time with nets closed.
In addition to the saw-whets, we caught two more Barred Owl this week. Capturing these owls adds a unique brand of excitement to a night of banding for a number of reasons. One of the big ones is their size: the average mass of the Barred Owl that we’ve caught this season is over twice that of the Long-eared Owl and about 7.5 times that of the Northern Saw-whet Owl. Needless to say, they’re a bit more of a handful!
We’ve caught 41 owls so far in October, bringing us to a total of 167 owls for the season: 162 Northern Saw-whet Owl, two Long-eared Owl, and three Barred Owl.
Until next week!
– Kate Maley and Eliana Fierro-Calderón, fall owl banders
Please Note
Out of an abundance of caution and to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, public observation of owl banding is not available this season.
If you have questions about the owl banding program, please feel free to reach out through social media (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) or email birds@michiganaudubon.org.
The 150th Northern Saw-whet Owl banded this fall
