We’re happy to be back for Nova’s 20th spring season of owl banding at WPBO! As many of you may know, we have had a mild winter, and the conditions in late February and early March felt more like mid-spring. Unfortunately, the past few nights have brought along the winter weather we are more accustomed to. Mercifully, we did get some owls on the first two nights of the season before some of the worst conditions set in. Despite unfavorable winds on our first night, we banded the season’s first four Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO). Conditions improved on the second night, and we banded 20 NSWO and caught one that had been previously banded. Since then, nets have been empty or closed altogether. It looks like the weather will continue to slow migration and limit our efforts for at least a few nights, but hopefully, things will pick up once conditions improve.

The first owl of the spring 2024 season — a northern saw-whet.

Season Totals of Banded Owls
Northern Saw-whet Owls: 24
Long-eared Owls: 0
Barred Owls: 0
Boreal Owls: 0
Total Owls: 24

~ Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley
2024 Spring Owl Banders

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

The spring owl banding season runs from March 15 through May 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.

Nova Mackentley and Chris Neri: 2024 Spring Owl Banders

A lifelong birder, Chris became particularly fascinated with owls at the age of eight. He was introduced to owl banding by Katy Duffy in Cape May, NJ, in the mid-90s and knew after the first night that his life had just been changed. He has since worked with birds of prey in NV, NJ, NM, ID, CA, OR, MN, and his home state of PA. His life changed again when he arrived for his first season of owl banding at WPBO in the spring of 1999. As he puts it, “I have been fortunate enough to spend seasons at some of the premier raptor sites around the country working on some great research projects, but nothing has captured me the way the owl migration at Whitefish Point has.”

Originally from upstate New York, Nova first came to Michigan as a pianist and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy. From there, it was an adventurous trek through Carnegie Mellon University and Oberlin College, studying abroad in Tanzania and earning her B.A. in Biology. Nova has loved Whitefish Point and the unique owl migration from the minute she was first hired as an owl bander back in 2005. She has worked with passerines, owls, hawks, parrots, ground squirrels, and ocelots at various field sites worldwide, but the owls always bring her back to Whitefish Point. 

During their many years at WPBO, Nova and Chris have substantially upgraded the spring owl banding, discovered a unique movement of juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls during the summer, coauthored several papers on owls, and feel grateful to call the U.P. their home. As nature photographers, Whitefish Point and its wonders have inspired much of their photography.