Owl Banding

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 [...]

This past week, we had our biggest flight of the fall season so far. On Oct. 18 and 19, we were closed due to weather. When we reopened on Oct. 20, we banded two Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and one Barred Owl (BDOW). One of the NSWO weighed in at 108 grams, which is [...]

The first Boreal Owl of the 2023 fall season. Photo by Liv Ridley It's been a very busy week here at Whitefish Point! Migration is in full effect. We've been getting lots of birds, mostly Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) but also Barred, Long-eared, and Boreal Owls. On October 11, we banded 16 [...]

Howdy! We've had nets closed most of this week due to rain and strong winds. However, last Thursday, there was a great flight before the storms blew through this weekend. It was our fifth double-digit night! We also got our second encounter of the season, a Northern Saw-whet Owl. We're still trying to determine [...]

Hey there, folks! It's been a steady week here at the banding station. Wednesday and Thursday night, each brought seven Northern Saw-whet Owls. Friday was busier; we hit double digits for the third time this season, banding 11 Northern Saw-whets and one Barred Owl. The pace slowed slightly on Saturday night — we only [...]

The first Long-eared Owl of the fall season. Photo by Sarah Montalvo Howdy! Since our last update, we've banded 50 more Northern Saw-whet Owls, with our best night of the season being 22 in one night. There's been a late flight with northern saw-whets that still have juvenile plumage the past couple [...]

Greetings from the WPBO banding station! We’ve just wrapped up our first week of the 2023 fall owl banding season, and our first night (September 14/15) yielded nine Northern Saw-whet Owls, the season high so far. Our next three nights were a bit slower — we banded three Northern Saw-whet Owls on Friday night, [...]

After banding just 45 juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) in July, results so far in August have come as a welcomed surprise. We banded another 26 juveniles this week, bringing August's total to 112 and the season total to 157 juvenile NSWO banded. Although this is at the low end compared to other years, [...]

Our streak of consecutive nights continued this past week, and we have now opened nets on all 46 nights of the season so far. This week we welcomed Sarah Montalvo to the field crew, and her first night was the second most productive night of the season with the banding of 18 owls. The [...]

Things picked up this past week after being in a serious rut during the last three weeks of July. Our nightly total from July 8 to August 1 never exceeded eight owls banded. Aside from the night of July 11, when we banded four juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls, our nightly total for juveniles was [...]