Owl Banding Week 4

Since our last post, things have slowed down a little bit here in the owl banding world. While the birds are still showing up, they are not keeping us as busy as last week. The weather this past week also affected our banding ability and kept us closed for a couple of days.

While Northern Saw-whet Owl numbers have slowed, we have still been able to band some fun birds. At the beginning of the week, we were surprised to see this Northern Saw-whet Owl in full juvenile plumage in our nets. While this plumage is common during the summer owl banding season, by the time we start catching birds in the fall, they are usually farther along into their adult molt than this. This particular bird was just starting to molt their facial disc; however, the rest of its plumage is still very much juvenile.

Northern Saw-whet Owl in juvenile plumage.

We also added to our Barred Owl numbers this past week with a couple of individuals.

Barred Owl.

While banding one of these individuals earlier this week, Dana noted that this particular bird’s undertail coverts (the finer feathers tucked up under a bird’s tail) had heart patterns on them. Neither of us has noted if this is common with Barred Owls or not, but we are definitely going to be on the lookout for it in future birds.

Heart spots on a Barred Owl’s undertail coverts.

Finally, in a little bit of non-birding news. After having a couple of days off of banding due to the weather, we noticed tracks from a visitor when we opened on the next good weather night. These bear tracks were found alongside one of our main net sets. While we have yet to see the individual who made these tracks, we have definitely been on the lookout for it the past few days.

Bear tracks in the sand by one of the nets.

Season Totals
Northern Saw-whet Owl: 163
Long-eared Owl: 1
Barred Owl: 7

~ Tori Steely and Dana Reid
2022 Fall Owl Banders