Lighthouse in the Snow

Lakeshore Ice

Winter has blanketed the Point! Snow fell most of this week so it was the perfect opportunity to tackle the season's data crunching. The most outstanding statistic that emerged is simply how scarce the owls were this fall. We banded 46 Northern Saw-whets, 24 Boreals, and 4 Barred Owls. Given that a lucky birder will find a couple Saw-whet Owls per year, 46 may sound like a lot, but this represents the fewest number banded during the past seven standardized seasons, the lowest percentage of young vs. adult Saw-whets, and the lowest overall capture rate. All-in-all, we caught 1 owl of any species for every 4 hours of operation. As many factors are always at play in nature, it's not possible to name the exact cause of these record lows, but it's hard not to guess that poor breeding success for Saw-whet Owls this year played a significant role in these outcomes. This speculation is further supported by the low number of juvenile Saw-whets recorded at the point during Chris and Nova's summer project.

Last Boreal Owl of 2008

The presence of Boreal Owls also made for an interesting season. With 24 individuals banded, this year may not qualify as an irruption, but more Boreals were present this fall than usual. Monitoring the cyclic nature of Boreal Owl migration in Michigan is a fascinating aspect of owl study at Whitefish Point. The graph below shows the number of Boreals banded during each fall from 1991 through 2008 (click chart to enlarge).


It has definitely been a memorable season for us, with the undisputed highlight coming after the official end date had passed. It has become apparent that this winter will be a great one for the chance to observe Snowy Owls! If you've been following the sightings blog, you know that SIX have been recorded at the tip since late October. If you haven't yet heard through the grapevine, one of them was also captured and banded by Chris!! It's been MANY years since this species was banded at WPBO (perhaps just the second one ever) and we feel extremely lucky to have witnessed it.

Keith holds his first Snowy Owl

Well, this wraps up the owl blog for the season - its been fun! We'd like to say thanks very much to WPBO for having us back for yet another year, thanks to everyone reading and commenting on our blog, and special thanks to our supporters including WPBO members and everyone participating in the 'sponsor a raptor' and 'sponsor a day' programs.
http://www.wpbo.org/Raptorsponsor.html
http://www.wpbo.org/Daysponsor.html

Good Winter Owling!
~ Keith & Wendy

Happy Halloween!!
This is a photo of a Saw-whet Owl wing under UV light.

New feathers glow pink! and the pattern helps determine how old the
bird is.


Halloween proved to be good for owls at the point. It was only the second time this season that three species were banded in a single night. 1 Saw-whet, 2 Boreals, and a Barred Owl all made an appearance... as did a skillfully placed Great Horned Owl DECOY, courtesy of the trouble making day shift :0

Rain, wind, and snow have been a nuisance lately, keeping us closed five out of the last eight nights. We were especially happy to catch a break in the weather last night because the owl program is now officially wrapped up for the year. It may have been our final night of banding, but this won't be our last blog entry. Once we get back into the day schedule and write our seasonal report, check back for data details and thoughts on the season as a whole.

Northern Saw-whet Owl profile

hands full

Thanks for reading,
Wendy & Keith

Hello Owlers -

Boreals and Saw-whets continue to be banded at the point. Strong wind hampered efforts last night, but at least one Boreal had been captured five nights in a row before that. Tuesday was the big night recently with 3 Saw-whets and 1 Boreal banded. Interestingly, they were all captured within an hour of each other during a shift in wind direction over the bay.

Only two more nights this fall to see Chris's evening program! Enjoy amazing photos and one-of-a-kind stories about the owls of Whitefish Point and our research. 8pm at the gift shop Oct 25th and 28th.

Unfortunately we've had no additional reports of the Great Gray Owl mentioned in the "sightings" blog on the 18th. We can only hope its presence was a hint of more to come.

~Keith & Wendy

With one-third of the season yet to go, we are still wondering if things are going to pick up??

Here's a tally of owls banded so far (Sep 15 - Present):

38 Saw-whet Owls - To put this in perspective, last year we banded 38 Saw-whets on Oct 13th alone! The record total for a full season (Sep 15 – Oct 31) is 324.

14 Boreal Owls – Considering the irruptive nature of Boreal Owl migration in Michigan, 14 is a good count, but it's not on par with the two big invasions witnessed at WPBO in the past. During the fall of 2000, 159 Boreals were banded, while the record total 170 was reached in 1996.

3 Barred Owls – On the low side… but that’s ok with us! Just check out our Blog entries from last fall (under “Blog Archive” on the right, click “2007”). Excluding last year, the average number of Barreds expected per fall is around 8.

0 Long-eared Owls – Late October is usually good for at least one of these beautiful birds. We sure hope so, because the last time 0 fall Long-eareds were banded was eight years ago. The previous two seasons have seen record numbers of Long-eared Owls with 12 last year and 15 in 2006.

We’re still hopeful that a Hawk Owl or Great Gray will show up before we’re done. Last night was the first freeze of the season with temperatures dipping to -3 deg C for a few hours before dawn.

Thanks for reading :-)

Till next time,
Wendy & Keith

Strong westerly wind and rain hit the point last night, but we still managed to catch 1 Boreal Owl before the front arrived around 2 am. This is the first storm of the season to cause any leaf-drop and colors are at their peak right now, so it’s really feeling like fall! Since our big night on Oct 8th, zero to five owls have been netted per attempt. 5 Saw-whet, 3 Boreal, and 1 Barred Owl have been banded.

Boreal Owl wingspan

Keith with the Barred Owl

We are thrilled to be getting owls, but this is a slow pace for our station considering this has historically been peak week for fall Boreal migration at WPBO. Who knows, we still have a few weeks left and anything can happen...

Saturday Sunrise

Happy Hooting
~Keith & Wendy

Hold on to your hats dayshift!!

Saw-whet Owl gets its wing measured

Both Saw-whet and Boreal Owls arrived at the point last night! In total, 9 Saw-whets and 6 Boreals were banded. After how slow the first half of the season has been, it was really great to see our first good push!

45 sec. video of a Boreal Owl

~Wendy & Keith

Rain showers and wind have hampered owl banding efforts for most of the last week. Last night things finally cleared up and it seemed like a perfect night for migration… but only 3 Saw-whet Owls were captured. Even though there hasn’t been many birds around, travelers can make the most of their visit by dropping by on Tuesday or Saturday night at 8:00 pm for a great presentation on Whitefish Point owls by Chris Neri. The show takes place at the WPBO gift shop across the parking lot from the lighthouse and will run until we finish the season at the end of the month.

Happy Owling,
Keith & Wendy

Boreal Owl

Cold, clear, and calm weather on the 24th brought the seasons first Boreal Owl! This relatively early arrival date has us excited for the possibility of an irruption year. The last time a Boreal Owl was banded at WPBO during the fall was in 2005.

In the banding lab

Despite the Boreal excitement, overall captures remain low. At this point, we've banded 7 Saw-whet Owls. This is way behind the record 102 by this date in 2004 and nearly 80% below average numbers. It has become apparent that breeding success for Saw-whets was quite poor in our region this year. Still, the birds we are catching appear in good health, and serve as the best reminders to why we're doing this at all.

Northern Saw-whet Owl poses after release

~Keith & Wendy

No owls have been banded or seen since our last post. We did have a little rain during the pre-dawn hours of the 22nd, but other than that, weather has not hindered our efforts so far this season. Even though the owls have been absent, we aren't the only nocturnal creatures out and about. It seems the extra moisture and warmer temperatures have put amphibians on the prowl. We found four species last night - Eastern Toad, Spring Peeper, Blue-spotted Salamander and Green Frog.

Female Green Frog

Spring Peeper - full grown!

Peeper close up
(click photo to enlarge)

One more Barred Owl and 2 Saw-whets have been captured during the last three nights of banding. On the 19th we had a Silver-haired Bat in the net and a Long-eared Owl escaped before we could get our hands on it. Despite fair weather, we are having the slowest first week on record for fall Saw-whet Owls at the Point. The average number of Saw-whets banded by this date is 23, while we have just 4. Only time will tell, but past data indicates that years in which Saw-whet abundance is lowest, Boreal Owl activity is high. It's too early to make sound predictions, but we remain hopeful of seeing a Boreal or two this fall.

Northern Saw-whet Owl perched for release

In other news, during the first trip out last night, we found three of our nets torn down and strewn about by a moose! We didn't witness the incident, but scattered tracks in the sand told the story of the struggle. One net was salvaged, and with the help of a visiting ecology class from Alma College, we were able to get it back up in a couple hours. Thanks guys!! This would have taken us all night.

WPBO Board member Mike Bishop and his students help
pick lichen out of our moose-thrashed net

Thanks for tuning in,

-Wendy & Keith

This is the first blog entry of the fall owl season. So far, 2 Saw-whets and 1 Barred have been banded over three nights. Temperatures have been colder than usual (with a low of 4°C) and occasional wind has forced us to close a few nets closest to the beach.

We got our first surprise catch when a Whip-poor-will showed up in the early hours of the 17th.

Whip-poor-will

Saw-whet Owl molting out of juvenile plumage

Migration might not be in full swing, but the nights have been nice and a full moon lights the way. We're glad to be back at WPBO this fall and look forward to all the surprises yet to come!

~Keith & Wendy

Nothing but mammals last night. We came across a fox early in the night. A little investigation revealed that it had been feeding on a Ring-billed Gull. A doe and its fawn gave us a good scare in the middle of the night. The only thing in the nets all night was a rather angry bat. Given the recent lack of productivity, and the weather forecast for the next few nights, we will begin making the switch over to a day schedule. That being said, we will still be opening the nets and giving it a few hours for a few more nights.

Things have really slowed down again over the last two nights. Monday night we banded just 1 juvenile Saw-whet, and last night we banded 2. We're hoping things pick up again, but at this point we're not holding our breath. At least we were treated to a beautiful sunrise this morning. The waterbird count has begun, and waterbird counter Tim Baerwald has started the waterbird blog. Once we're done with the owls we'll get the sightings blog going again.

The last week has been fairly productive. On Tuesday we finally broke 100 owls for the season. Friday night we banded 13 juvenile and 1 adult Saw-whet, making it the most productive night to date. Saturday night the first Long-eared Owl of the season was banded (photo above). The Long-eared still had a few of the downy feathers it wore as a chick. It was also very lightly colored, as you can see well in the underwing, which means it was very likely a male. It's amazing to catch these juvenile owls knowing that just a few months ago they were eggs. The photo below shows a juvenile Saw-whet and the Long-eared.

We have been told be multiple visitors that they have received incorrect information when they have called to inquire about the owl banding. With the exception of 6 nights, when it was either raining or too windy, we have banded every night since July 1st. We plan to continue until at least August 25th. The first net check is being run around 10:30 PM. If you come to visit, come to the door in the back of the Owl's Roost gift shop. If we are not there it means that we are back at the nets. Please wait at the gift shop for our return, and DO NOT come back into the net lanes. We bring all of the owls we catch back to the Owl's Roost for banding where you will have the opportunity to see them up close. Because I am the fall's field ornithologist, if the owls stop moving we will stop owl banding, switch over to a day schedule, and begin conducting the songbird census. We will give a few days notice on this blog when we are about to make the switch.
We had a big turnout for the summer's last Thursday night owl presentation. Thanks to all of you who attended over the summer. Your enthusiasm and encouragement were greatly appreciated. Nova will be leaving next month, but Keith and Wendy will be returning to do the fall owl banding, and I will be doing owl presentations this fall. If you are interested in attending, please check here for the schedule early next month.

We've begun getting a steady trickle of juvenile Saw-whets, 19 have been banded over the last seven days. The above photo shows an adult on the left, and a juvenile on the right. As they did last summer, the adult captures dropped off soon after we began seeing active flight feather molt. An adult caught last night was in active molt, replacing the flight feathers on its wings and growing in a new tail (photo below).


The juveniles are also in active molt. They are molting out of the juvenile plumage that they wear for a very short time of their lives. You can see the first few adult breast feathers coming in on the left side of the photo below.


We catch a few bats during the summer. Considering how many are around right now we're glad that we're not catching more. The Red Bat pictured below was caught a few nights ago. They are a beautiful bat. It was pointed out to me that I had incorrectly labeled this as a Hoary Bat.

While the folks who attended our Thursday evening program tonight got treated to a juvenile Saw-whet early in the night, a fog soon rolled in and effectively shut us down. Maybe tomorrow night.......hope springs eternal.

Our spirits got a bit of a boost last night. After banding only 4 juvenile Saw-whets since we began on July 1st, and none since the 22nd, we banded 6 last night. These birds were all in the very early stage of their molt into adult plumage, providing a little more hope that there may be more to come. While we've given up hopes of matching last year's success, hopefully this is a sign that we are finally about to see a little bit of a juvenile movement.

The banding continues to be slow. While we are slightly ahead of last summers results for adult Saw-whets, the juveniles are simply not showing up in any numbers. We did catch the first Barred Owl to be banded during the summer research (photo above). It is not uncommon to catch owls or hawks with deformed eyes, but the Barred had on of the most deformed eye we have seen. It had no pupil in the left eye. We originally banded it on the 16th, and recaptured it on the 23rd. In spite of the deformed eye, it had gained 16 grams. It is an adult bird, and is apparently able to hunt successfully.
While our optimism in regards to the juveniles is fading, it is still possible that the breeding season began a bit late this year. To date we have only captured four, and we are at what was the peak time for the juvenile captures last year. The photo below is one of the two that were banded on the 22nd.
I promised some visitors who unsuccessfully spent a couple late nights waiting for us to catch an owl, that I would let them no how the rest of the night went. We did catch an adult Saw-whet at 2 AM on the last night of your visit. These folks put in a strong effort, unfortunately it was during the least productive productive span of the season so far. Hope you folks can visit again.

We were very relieved to catch the first juvenile Saw-whet of the season last night (photos above). This is just over 2 weeks later than our first one last summer. We obviously hope the juveniles are going to pick up now. This spring's Saw-whet migration was 2 weeks behind last year's. Maybe that's the difference, maybe not, only time will tell. We've banded 50 adult Saw-whet so far, which is very similar to last years results at this date. Weather permitting, we will be giving another of our Thursday night programs tomorrow, 7/17. You can view details on a previous post below.


This time of year we begin to see active molt in some of the adults we catch. The above bird has dropped its tail, that's all the white undertail coverts sticking out. The below bird has begun growing in new tail feathers.

Many of the adults are molting the feathers on their feet and legs. As beautiful as these little guys are, they are not so cute under their feathers(photo below).

Tonight we are doing a presentation at the Tahquamenon Rivermouth Campground at 9:30pm. Also, tomorrow night at 9:30pm is our second program at the point. Hope to see you there!

We are still waiting to capture the first juvenile of the season. The weather has not been very cooperative, so that could have something to do with it. Adult saw-whets are still coming through, and last night we recaptured one that was banded in May this spring!

The summer season has started off with some captures of adult Northern Saw-whet Owls. No juveniles yet, but we are hoping they start soon. We have captured and banded 10 owls so far, and have caught 2 previously banded birds already! One was from last fall here at WPBO, and the other is unknown thus far. We will find out more from the Banding Lab later in the season.

Tonight is our first public presentation! 9:30pm at the WPBO gift shop at Whitefish Point, across the parking lot from the Shipwreck Museum. The weather looks beautiful, possibly a bit chilly, so bring a sweater.

Summer banding starts tonight...who knows what will happen! Click on the above image to enlarge the image, and find out about the summer owl program.

Well, the season wrapped up nicely this year. It is officially our biggest season ever for owl banding at WPBO! Here are the numbers:

Total owls banded March 15th-May 31st: 1192

Saw-whets: 998 (yes, we really tried for those last 2 birds, but had bad weather the last 2 nights)
Boreals: 63
Long-eareds: 110
Barreds: 16
Great-Horneds: 5 (this is the most ever captured in a spring season)

We also captured 35 owls that were already banded. Some were originally banded at WPBO, and others were banded elsewhere. One Saw-whet came to visit us all the way from PA!

Hope you enjoyed this season's blog. Please feel free to send us any comments you may have.
We will resume updating this blog starting July 1st...juvenile saw-whet owl summer season!


This is a Long-eared Owl with an interesting hairstyle...

Last night was very interesting. We do not expect too much at the end of the season, but we captured 33 Saw-whets and a Long-eared! Not too bad for May 28th. We also captured 2 Saw-whets that were previously banded here. One was a bird banded last year, on the same date, 1 1/2 hours later. Guess that one is returning right on time. The other owl was one of our summer juveniles from 2006. This was really exciting for us, because it has now survived 2 years. It is the first of our summer juveniles to be recaptured 2 years after being banded!

***Its your last chance to pledge for the Memorial Day WPBO Birdathon. Don't miss out!***

We are still banding owls up here, but only have one week left. Last night we recaptured a Barred Owl that has now visited us 4 times this season. Other than that, Saw-whets are pretty much all that we are banding lately, but we are still getting some good numbers (17 last night). The weather has not been cooperative, but we finally had some warblers yesterday to distract us during the morning. This next week looks like a good one for songbirds!

We want to thank all of you who expressed your interest in the Saw-whet nest box project after our presentations at this years Spring Fling and the Paradise Township meeting. For those who were interested in building their own boxes, here's the link to the nest box plans. This company also sells nest boxes on their website.

http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/plans_saw_whet_owl.htm

One study reported that most of the nests occurred at a height of 3.5m-6m, or 11'8"-19'8". They prefer relatively open woods, either coniferous or with a mix of conifers and deciduous trees.

We hope this project will provide insight to our summer owl banding research. Over 3 weeks in 2006 and 2 months in 2007, we banded over 700 juvenile Saw-whets at the Point (above photo: a juvenile Saw-whet at the Point, July 2007). We really have no idea where these birds are coming from. We hope by banding nestlings on the Whitefish Peninsula, we will begin to gain knowledge into what role the local populations play in the summer owl banding at the Point (photo below: nestling Saw-whet being weighed at nest site, summer 2007). The spring owl banding will be taking all of our energy for a few more weeks, but we hope to get going on the nest boxes in mid-June. Any other locals interested in having a Saw-whet nest box installed on their property please let us know, email at wpbostaff@gmail.com

Here are some more exciting numbers for you dedicated bloggers. We've reached 1,000 owls and still will be banding until May 31st...as long as we don't keel over first. Also, we banded our 100th Long-eared Owl for this spring! The Long-eareds are still migrating, which is unusual. We have had lots of visitors lately, in particular one young lady-Ms. Sarah Toner, who was very excited to release a Long-eared. She had read our article on Aging Saw-whet Owls in our membership newsletter "The Migrant", and aged the first Saw-whet we showed her correctly. A future owl bander, I'm sure!

Please don't forget that our Birdathon is coming up in a week or so. If you haven't pledged, please help us out. The summer owl research depends on you!

Big Owls.

That is pretty much all we have to say. In the last three nights we have captured 14 long-eareds, 6 Barreds, and 3 Great-Horneds. Over the last 15 spring seasons only 3 Great Horneds have been captured, so banding 3 in 2 nights was very unexpected. While we are still not seeing the numbers of Barreds that Keith and Wendy experienced last fall, they continue to be a nightly presence. Last night we tracked down a screaming Blue Jay, knowing it was being preyed upon. We expected to find a larger owl, but were amazed to find that a Saw-whet had taken a Blue Jay! It's easy to forget what capable hunters those little cuties are.

***The sightings blog is now being updated. Visit www.wpbosightings.blogspot.com

It seems that the Barred Owls have increased their presence around the point in the last week or so. We haven't captured very many new ones, but have had some recaptures of banded Barreds from last year and this year. On the same subject, we have captured 30 encounters (already banded) owls this spring. Some are ours from years past. One last week was a juvenile from last summer, which was very exciting. Yay for the summer owl project!

Well, the owls have slowed down a bit due to the bad weather recently. However, last night we saw our first Great Gray Owl of the season. We saw it only once during our first net check, but it gives us hope for May! Our total numbers for the season thus far are very encouraging, with over 800 owls banded since March 15th. Since we only banded 26 owls in March, April was a very busy month.

For those who would like to visit the Bird Observatory and see the owl banding, here are a couple of pointers.

1.We band starting at dusk. This means that we set up the nets at that time (around 9-9:30pm), and the first net check is usually around 10:30pm. This will become later as the nights get shorter. Visitors can wait behind the WPBO gift shop while we check the nets. If we catch any owls,we will bring them back to be banded. Visitors are welcome to observe the banding and release procedure. No flash photography please.

2.We do not band in high wind or rain. If the lights in the gift shop are off, so are we!

3.The owl banding is a very special activity that is free to the public at Whitefish Point. We really enjoy educating our visitors about owls, and hope that you will consider making a donation to WPBO. Your support is what keeps our research going!

This leads me to one more announcement:

the WPBO Staff Birdathon 2008 is happening in May. This is an event to raise funds for our summer owl banding project that has been going on for 2 seasons. Some of you have read our blogs about this amazing juvenile Saw-whet Owl movement. Anyway, the WPBO staff known as the "Northern Saw-whats" team will record the number of bird species seen in the Whitefish Point Peninsula during a 24 hour time period. We hope to see about 100 species. We are looking for sponsors for this event.

Becoming a sponsor is EASY! All you have to do is email us a pledge amount and your mailing address information. You can choose to pledge per species (ex. 50 cents/species= $50 if we see 100 species) or pledge a fixed amount. After the birdathon, we will contact you for your pledge money, and you will recieve a written account of our day, a species list, and information on our summer owl project. Anyone who donates over $100 will also receive a juvenile Saw-whet adoption package, including a photo of your owl, banding information, and an adoption certificate. Last year's birdathon raised $1,500 for the summer owl research. That money contributed significantly towards funding this new project. We had a great response from those who attended this year's Spring Fling, thanks to all of you who have already sponsored.

You can email us your pledge at: wpbostaff@gmail.com, or send it to:

WPBO-Birdathon
16914 N Whitefish Point Rd
Paradise, MI 49768

Thank You!

Chris and I have finally recovered from the whirlwind of Spring Fling. It was a great weekend, with lots of enthusiastic birders running around the point, despite the cold weather. We would like to thank everyone for all of their support and interest in our owl banding programs, and hope that you will visit us again!

After everyone left, we caught our first (and probably only) Great Horned Owl of the season...sorry for those who waited hopefully on early Sunday evening. It was one of the largest GHOW that we have banded here- 1683 grams. We also recaptured a Barred Owl that was banded by Keith and Wendy last year. This is the first we have recaptured of the 60 banded last fall. Boreals are still present, which is continuing to surprise us. We are not seeing many of them, but manage to capture a few every couple of nights. We are really looking forward to May and warmer weather!