Owl Banding

This week, as some of you saw on social media, we broke the previous record of 538 juvenile saw-whet owls set in 2007 with a total of 560 on August 4th! We are currently up to 573 juvies, 33 adults, and 38 Long-eared Owls for a record breaking 644 owls banded in the summer (previously [...]

Well, the grind has continued, but thankfully, so have the owls. We've been able to band on 32 of 33 nights so far this summer and have banded 483 owls; 461 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and 22 Long-eared Owls. We mentioned in our previous posts that we were not expecting it to be a peak [...]

We've been able to band 22  of 23 nights so far, and the strong start to the season has continued. To date, we have banded 316 Northern Saw-whet Owls and 13 Long-eared Owls. Of the saw-whets, 28 have been adults and 288 have been juveniles. The 288 juveniles is our best total for a non-peak [...]

Although this year should not be the peak in the reproductive cycle of Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO), we are off to the best start ever for juvenile NSWO this summer. To date, we have banded 180 owls; 172 saw-whets and eight Long-eared Owls. Of the 172 NSWO we've banded, 148 have been juveniles. This strong [...]

It's hard to believe that this is the fifteenth year of summer owl banding. A lot of sweat has gone into working in the woods at night through July and August over the years. Thanks to the mosquitoes, even more of our blood has gone into this project. I have been fortunate to have great [...]

After being very cooperative in giving us regular nights off during the first two months of the season, the weather has decided it is time for us to put in some overtime. Tonight is the 16th night in a row that we have been able to open the nets. Thankfully, the nights have been productive. [...]

We’re hijacking the owl blog this week in the hopes of raising some funds for the WPBO Birdathon. Every spring since 2007, the field staff have dedicated a day in late May to try to document as many species as possible to raise money for the research we all believe in. It is stressful; I [...]

The recent weather patterns have had a significant impact on our nightly efforts, shutting us down some nights, but producing some nice little pushes during the breaks in the wind. The most exciting news is that shortly after posting our last update, we banded a Great Gray Owl, a male that hatched last year. The [...]

We’re effectively stuck in repeat mode when it comes to giving general updates on the owl migration. Northern Saw-whet Owls have continued at a steady trickle, and we have not banded a Boreal Owl since April 25. So, it has been the Long-eared Owls that have kept us busy this past week. We’re reaching the [...]

Not a lot has changed since our last post in regard to the owl migration. We continue to be surprised by the low number of Northern Saw-whet Owls. Nightly totals for saw-whets once again failed to hit double digits during the past week. On the plus side, we did recently band two more Boreal Owls. [...]