Well, there’s no real reason to sugarcoat our disappointment over this past week’s results. The weather is really starting to get the better of us. I don’t remember a season in my previous 20 years of spring owl banding here when we had so many nights of unfavorable weather conditions at this point in the season. It is now prime time for owl migration here, and even during the few windows when conditions seemed good this past week, the owl migration was inexplicably slow. We banded 10 Northern Saw-whet Owls, 11 Long-eared Owls, and one Barred Owl this past week.
Once again, the extended forecast looks like a mess for many of the coming nights. The spring owl migration here is the most amazing thing we have ever experienced, and we have dedicated our adult lives to it, but this season has admittedly been rough so far. The one positive note this past week is that all the shoveling we did over the past couple of weeks has paid off. We can now walk the net lanes, our skis and snowshoes are back on their hooks in our basement, and we should now hopefully have about a month and a half before the mosquitoes cost us our sanity.
As the owls didn’t provide us with any new or particularly interesting photo ops this week, our featured photo is the first and only spring peeper of the season on a field of snow. Hopefully, their calls will be deafening in the net lanes within a few weeks.
~ Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley
2022 WPBO Spring Owl Banders
You can read Chris and Nova’s weekly blog post and follow WPBO’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) for owl banding highlights this season.
Owl Banding Presentations — Visitors may observe owls that have been banded on Friday and Saturday evenings from dusk until midnight. Please note that banding is weather dependent and it is at the banders’ discretion to cancel banding accordingly. Observation will be limited to outdoors only and we encourage participants to wear masks and continue to practice social distancing whenever possible. For the safety of the owls, flash photography and recording video is prohibited.
Support WPBO’s Research During Birdathon on May 28
Our skilled team of bird counters and volunteers at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory will set out on a mission to count as many bird species as possible in one day on May 28, 2022, as part of an annual fundraising event supporting the amazing work happening at WPBO! In 2021, a whopping 152 species were counted and the event brought in $6,826.65! Let’s hope this year is just as successful.
This is where you come in! Because our work is 100% donor-funded, Birdathon provides all of our supporters with an opportunity to make a significant impact on our work by making a pledge or direct donation to Birdathon (even after the event). Any amount is helpful, but have some fun with it and consider letting your donation or pledge be inspired by a per-species amount.
Learn more about Birdathon and find links to donate at wpbo.org/birdathon.
Thank you so much to everyone who supports the work being done at WPBO!
