WPBO Owls Fall 2010

Long-eared Owl

If you happened to read our last post we'd just like to say we are not meteorologist, we're simply among the idiots that rely on them. After the very productive night on the 15th we were geared up for another good night on the 16th. The weather predictions were unfortunately not accurate and with high winds limiting our efforts just 2 adult Saw-whets were banded before we had to shut down. Conditions were decent last night and 19 juvenile Saw-whets and the season's second Long-eared were banded. While we band many more Long-eareds during the spring season, there are a couple things that we see in the summer that we have never seen in the spring. During the summer research we have caught several Long-eareds that were so young that they still had retained natal down. As chicks they are covered with gray downy feathers, their natal down. They then grow in body feathers that are indistinguishable from adult feathers. It is truly amazing to see these patches of gray downy feathers on a full sized Long-eared and realize that just a few months ago these beautiful birds were eggs. Adults we band in the summer are often actively molting their flight feathers. The bird in the above photo has just begun this molt. The uneven trailing edge of the wing is due to that fact that it has just dropped its innermost primaries. These dropped feathers had just begun growing back in and were pin feathers similar those on the Saw-whet pictured in our post from the 10th.

Chris & Nova