The owl banding season is coming to a close, and it started to feel like it this week. Nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing multiple times, and the rain that kept nets closed earlier this month has begun to turn to snow and sleet. The owls are still moving, but migration here at the Point has started to slow. For the first week this month, we didn’t band any Barred Owl. We did see one on the morning of Oct. 22 but haven’t seen any signs of it since.
That said, we did have a few notable nights this week. First, on the night of Oct. 22, we caught 12 Northern Saw-whet Owl! While similar numbers were fairly common at the end of September and beginning of October, we haven’t caught more than five saw-whets in any other night since Oct. 13. So we were pretty excited to have a night with captures in the double digits. Even more exciting, though, was that we tripled our season total of Long-eared Owl this week! We caught two Long-eared Owl near the end of September and were starting to think that might be it for the season. It was a pleasant surprise to catch one on Oct. 23. Then, the next night, we caught four more!
All told, this week brought us up to a total of 260 owls for the season: 246 Northern Saw-whet Owl (236 new and 10 recaptured), seven Long-eared Owl, and seven Barred Owls
~ 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.
