The summer owl banding season started on the night of June 30. As is the case every year, we have primarily banded adult Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) during the first six nights of the season. So far, we have banded 36 adult NSWO, three juvenile NSWO, and one Long-eared Owl. If you have followed WPBO’s summer owl research in the past, you will know that the juvenile NSWO are the main focus of this project. Since starting the summer research in 2006, we have banded 846 adult NSWO compared to a little over 4,000 juveniles.

One of the season’s adult Northern Saw-whet Owls

For years, we thought we had a good understanding of the reproductive cycle of the NSWO we document at WPBO. Saw-whets are known to have a 4- to 5-year breeding cycle, meaning they peak in reproductive success every four to five years. Over the first 14 summer seasons, we saw a 5-year cycle, with peaks in reproductive success occurring in 2007, 2012, and 2017. Each of these peaks was followed immediately by a crash in reproductive success the next summer. After the peak in 2017, we believed we would not see a peak again until this summer. However, we unexpectedly had our most successful summer season in 2020, just three years after the 2017 peak. Adding to our confusion, we did not experience the crash last summer that we had experienced following the previous peaks. All of this has us very curious as to what our juvenile NSWO numbers will be this summer. Will we see a peak that puts us back on the 5-year cycle, or will the juveniles throw another curve? Only time will tell.

In addition to the owls, we regularly get to enjoy other creatures of the night. I have grown increasingly interested in moths since starting the summer banding in 2006. Below is a close-up of the face of a polyphemus moth I observed on a recent night off.

Polyphemus moth.

~ Chris Neri & Cory Gregory
2022 WPBO Summer Owl Banders

You can read Chris and Cory’s weekly blog posts 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.