Owl Banding

As expected, things remained relatively slow this past week. That said, it was a little more productive than the previous week. Our nightly totals ranged from two to seven owls. Of the 31 owls banded this week, 29 were juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO), one was an adult NSWO, and one was a Long-eared [...]

We experienced a wide variety of weather conditions this past week. Although periods of rain and high winds shut us down frequently, we also had periods of good weather that had us hoping that the owls would pick up again. Unfortunately, things have remained slow, with nightly totals ranging from one to seven owls [...]

Since the last posting, the transition from the movement of adult Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) to juvenile NSWO took full effect. Over the past week, we banded 50 juveniles and six adults. It's become apparent that we most likely are not going to see a continuation of the 5-year cycle of peak NSWO reproductive [...]

The expected transition from banding adult to juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) has recently begun. Adult NSWO numbers are highest during the first two weeks of July. Their numbers then typically remain steadily in low single-digit numbers into the beginning of August. Juvenile NSWO numbers vary significantly from year to year, but relative to [...]

We were able to band all seven nights since our last post, but things have been relatively slow. Adult Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) have remained steady, but they are never numerous during the summer season. Their numbers have also always dropped off after the second week of the season, so we are prepared to [...]

The summer owl banding season started on the night of June 30. As is the case every year, we have primarily banded adult Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) during the first six nights of the season. So far, we have banded 36 adult NSWO, three juvenile NSWO, and one Long-eared Owl. If you have followed [...]

Not surprisingly, the owl migration has been winding down in recent nights. For the first time since April 16, we did not band any Long-eared Owls on May 21. In fact, we did not band any May 21-23. However, we did band two last night. Hopefully, we’ll get a couple more long-eareds this season, [...]

Although it appears that the Long-eared Owl migration has begun to slow down, we had another productive week. We banded another 118 owls over the last seven nights; 78 Northern Saw-whet Owls, 36 Long-eared Owls, three Barred Owls, and what is likely the last Boreal Owl of the season. Additionally, we caught seven previously-banded [...]

We experienced another fairly productive owl migration this past week. We banded 110 owls, including 58 Northern Saw-whet Owls, which has us currently at 300 saw-whets banded for the season. We banded 46 more Long-eared Owls, which has us at 194 Long-eared Owls for the season. Unfortunately, no Boreal Owls were banded this past [...]