WPBO Owls Fall 2010

We would have posted earlier, but the late October nights are getting longer and our nets have been full of owls. We've been kept busy over the past five nights with 107 owls of 3 species captured! October 17th and 20th were especially busy with over 30 owls each night.

To break it down:
We banded 34 Saw-whets on the 17th and recaptured a Barred Owl that was banded four nights prior. October 20th brought 32 Saw-whets and 4 Long-eared Owls. Two more Long-eareds showed up on the 21st, bringing our fall total for this species to 11. We are also still regularly catching Barred Owls and have banded an almost unbelievable 56.

On a side note, sparrows seem to have become a theme of late. On the 19th we were lucky enough to witness a Saw-whet Owl repeatedly chase down and eventually catch a sparrow in the parking lot - a rare treat to see one "in action". A couple nights later, we were surprised to catch a Saw-whet still clutching its headless/wingless sparrow prey in the net. And to top it off, a disoriented American Tree Sparrow flew into the banding lab in the pre-dawn hours.

We're hoping that the cold front this week will bring with it a northern species or two. We just received the first fall reports of a Great Gray Owl seen in the Keweenaw and a Northern Hawk Owl in Minnesota. Hopefully others will hurry their way to the point – we've only got ten nights left.