One of the last Northern Saw-whet Owls of the season. Photo by Liv Ridley

The 2023 fall banding season has come to a close! We’ve had a handful of owls trickle in over the past week, but for the most part, migration has started to slow down after the late surge we got in mid-October. The weather kept our nets closed for a few nights, but we still managed to band six more Northern Saw-whet Owls along with a final Long-eared Owl.

Overall, we had a very productive fall season, banding just shy of 350 owls! Each one was such a pleasure to have come through our banding station. We feel so lucky to have been able to capture so many birds and so many species and to have been able to share them with the public in person and online. Some of our season highlights were having two 40-plus bird nights (and a 37-bird night), watching the northern lights, and getting to process three Boreal Owls. Thank you to all who followed along!

Season Totals of Banded Owls
Northern Saw-whet Owls: 323
Barred Owls: 16
Long-eared Owl: 6
Boreal Owls: 3
Total Owls: 348

~ Liv Ridley
2023 Fall Lead Owl Bander

Featured photo: Long-eared Owl. Photo by Sarah Montalvo

You can read the owl banders’ weekly blog posts and follow WPBO’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) for owl banding highlights this season.

The fall owl banding season runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 31.

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. For the safety of the owls, flash photography and recording video is prohibited.