Dana with her first Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Hello all. We’re just finishing up our first week of the 2022 fall owl banding season. Let us take a minute and introduce you to the fall 2022 owl banders. Tori Steely is returning for a third fall season of owl banding here at the Point, and this is Dana Reid’s first season at WPBO. Dana has been lucky to band Spotted Owls in California previous to this job.

So far the season has been off to a decent start. We caught our first two Northern Saw-whet Owls on the opening night of Sept. 14.

Unfortunately, the weather kept us closed most, if not all, of the rest of the next two nights. We caught another six Northern Saw-whet Owls on the night of Sept. 17. We are still catching some Northern Saw-whet Owls that are in the process of molting from their juvenile plumage to their adult plumage. These guys are always a bit bedraggled looking as they go through this molting period.

Northern Saw-whet Owl molting from juvenile to adult plumage.

Freshly molted Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Long-eared Owl.

The night of Sept. 19 led to our best night of the season so far. We caught 11 Northern Saw-whet Owls and our first Long-eared Owl of the season. Long-eared Owls are not as common of a species for us to catch in the fall so it’s always a pleasant surprise to get one of these guys.

Sept. 19 also brought us our first encounter of the season. An encounter is a bird who has been previously banded at a different station or during a different banding season. In this case, our encounter bird was a juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl that had been banded during the 2022 summer owl banding season at WPBO. This particular bird was banded on Aug. 19. It’s always fun to guess what this bird has been up to for the past month since it was originally banded.

That leads us to tonight. Unfortunately, we had to shut down a few hours early due to a crazy thunderstorm. (If you would like to get just a taste of the lightning tonight feel free to click this link IMG_5549.) However, before the rain shut us down, we were able to get five more Northern Saw-whet Owls.

The weather for the next couple of nights is calling for high wind/rain, so we will see how much we can open. Fingers crossed, we can get at least a few hours with our nets open before the weather shuts us down.

Season Totals
Northern Saw-whet Owls: 24
Long-eared Owls: 1

~ Tori Steely and Dana Reid
2022 Fall Owl Banders

You can read Tori and Dana’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.