WPBO Owls Fall 2010

Thursday, August 13, 2009

molting juvenile Saw-whet Owl

While things did pick up a little bit last night, it was not the push we were hoping for. Six juveniles were banded including the one pictured above. This bird's post-juvenile molt has progressed much farther than any other we have seen this season and its facial disc is nearly completely in adult plumage. We have recently been catching a relatively high percentage of juvenile that have not even begun their molt into adult plumage, which is odd at this late date. The last two nights have also been odd in the fact that all captures have been in the first half of the night, then we are not getting any birds during what is typically the peak period of the night. Conditions seem favorable again tonight, hopefully it will be good.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Former WPBO owl bander Paul Dziepak

& son Caleb with juvenile Saw-whet

Weather conditions last night seemed prime, but only 3 juveniles were banded. We were only able to get a few hours in during the last 3 nights due to weather, and 0 birds were banded.

The weather forecast for tonight looks very good and we're holding our breath in hopes that things will pick up again. We were visited last night by Paul & Caleb Dziepak. Paul worked at WPBO in the early 90's and did some of the first fall owl banding at the Point. It's always interesting to hear stories from folks who have spent seasons at the Point.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Saw-whet Owls, juvenile left & adult right

Long-eared Owl replacing it's flight feathers

The last four nights have produced decent results. Two adult Saw-whets banded on the 2nd make this the best summer yet for adults. Nineteen juvenile Saw-whets represent a bit of a slow down, but we hope that things will pick up again with improved weather conditions. In the previous 3 summers we have banded 1 to 4 Long-eareds, so we're happy to have banded 3 already this month. While we are fortunate enough to band a large number of Long-eareds in spring, 138 were banded this spring, captures in the summer provide a rare opportunity to see them during their annual molt period. All 3 banded this summer have been adults in active molt. There was also a nice turn out for Sarah's night hike, and we'd like to thank the folks who supported WPBO by adopting the night's first juvenile Saw-whet for their granddaughter.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Season's First Long-eared

Long-eared Owl

August got off to a very nice start. First off, just after posting yesterday's blog we received an email on an owl banding list-serve that we belong to. It listed a band number from a male Saw-whet caught at its nest in Abitibi, Quebec. For the second summer in a row Jonathan Gagnon recaptured a Saw-whet at its nest that we banded here this spring. We don't know the exact location of this nest box study, but this region is about 300 miles to our northeast. We banded this bird on April 23 and on Friday night it was delivering food to chicks that were about 20 days old. It's amazing to find out where birds banded here are nesting. Thanks to Jonathan we have found out where two of our spring Saw-whets headed to nest. It's also interesting to know that while at least one bird that we banded here this spring is still attending to young that are about 10 days from fledging, we have been catching juveniles for nearly a month.

After that exciting news we also had a good night banding. After a short rain delay we were able to open and favorable conditions produced the first Long-eared of the summer and 20 juvenile Saw-whets. We are now over 200 owls on the season and the juveniles are going strong. Between the news of the recapture and the night's banding it was a good day/night.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

A decent July

molting juvenile Saw-whet

The 1st month of the season wrapped up last night. The juveniles really picked up in the last few nights and we're happy with the results so far. We banded 196 Saw-whets in July; 65 adults and 131 juveniles. After banding just 60 juveniles all of last summer we're obviously happy to see that the breeding success of Saw-whets has begun to rebound.
Given that 78 of the juveniles were banded in the last 5 nights, we're feeling optimistic about early August. We're beginning to see some juveniles at more advanced stages of their molt into adult plumage. We always enjoy the period when the juveniles are at varying stages of this molt. The photo up top shows a juvenile that has molted in its ear-flaps, about half of its adult facial disc, and has a few adult breast feathers showing.

Our New Summer Owl Study

During the summer of 2006 WPBO conducted an exploratory owl banding research project at the Point. Our project ran 3 weeks, and our efforts resulted in the capture of 208 owls; 206 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and 2 Long-eared Owls. Of the 206 NSWO captured, 200 were juvenile birds. While the spring and fall migrations of NSWO have become increasingly well studied across the continent, these results represent the first documentation of a significant concentration of juvenile NSWO during the post-breeding period.

Thanks in large part to generous donations made by two individuals and pledges to the spring staff birdathon, we have been able to continue and expand this study during the summer of 2007. We began on July 1st, and as of August 10th we have banded 542 owls; 539 NSWO and 3 Long-eared Owls. As in 2006, the majority of the NSWO we have banded this summer have been juveniles.

In addition to the regular data we collect on all owls, we are visually accessing fat stores and muscle mass on all of the juveniles. Among North American owls only NSWO and Boreal Owls have a juvenile plumage that is significantly different from adult plumage. The juveniles begin actively molting out of their juvenile plumage and into adult plumage during our study period. Detailed descriptions of the molt progression on each juvenile have been collected.

Owl banding Spring 2007

Several changes were made to the spring owl banding protocol in 2007. These changes were made in an effort to increase our captures, thereby increasing our data base and our knowledge of the owl migration at Whitefish Point. Owl banding data collected by WPBO during previous springs clearly demonstrated that the Saw-whet migration at Whitefish Point was already at its peak during the 1st week of April. Therefore, the start date of the spring owl research was moved up from the previous start date of April 1st to March 15th. Audiolure was also introduced to the spring owl research for the first time. Audiolure is simply the practice of broadcasting a recording of an owl's call to lure them into the research area. This is a technique implemented at every other owl migration banding site that we know of, and has been used during the fall season at Whitefish Point since the fall study began in 1993. It has been documented that this practice increases Saw-whet captures 5-10 fold.
This spring the calls of Northern Saw-whet and Boreal Owls were broadcast. As the data from previous seasons suggested would be the case, Boreals were at the bottom of their irruptive cycle and none were captured. We fully expect that Boreal Owl captures during the next irruption will increase significantly due to the use of audiolure. As for Saw-whets, the changes proved a huge success after just one season. We banded nearly 280 Saw-whets during March alone; the previous high for an entire spring season was 122. Our total captures for all owl species in March was 318, these results are also higher than the total captures of any previous spring season. The chart below demonstrates the effectiveness of the changes implemented in the spring of 2007.

General Information

Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (WPBO) conducts long-term owl migration studies in both spring and fall. WPBO began its oversight of the spring owl research at Whitefish Point (WP) in 1988, and began the fall study in 1993. A summer study was developed during the summer of 2006 when a dispersal of juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls was discovered within the study area. These WPBO research projects have resulted in the banding of over 7,000 owls of eight species; Great Horned, Northern Hawk, Barred, Great Gray, Long-eared, Short-eared, Boreal, and Northern Saw-whet. This reasearch has established WP as one of the most diverse owl migration sites on the continent.

* Study periods:
Spring: March 15-May 31
Summer: currently July 1-August 31
Fall: September 15- October 31

**During the study periods nets are opened nightly, weather permitting , 1/2 hour after sunset and closed 1/2 hour before sunrise. Nets are not opened during periods of rain or high winds.

FAQs

Why do we band owls?
The owl banding project is the most effective way we have to monitor the number of owls migrating through Whitefish Point. For example, without the owl banding project just 3 Saw-whet Owls would have be documented in the spring of 2007. Through the owl banding project, 750 Saw-whets were banded and 32 that were already banded were caught. Without specific efforts to document the owl migration at Whitefish Point it would go virtually undetected. For more information on bird banding visit the Bird Banding Lab's website, which can be linked out of the WPBO website.

How do we catch and handle the owls?
All of the owls in our studies are captured in mist nets that are made specifically for bird banding. The mist nets we use are 12 meters long andabout 10 feet high. Due to the size difference between species that we catch two different mesh sizes are used. The nets are placed in openings among the trees at Whitefish Point. To help attract the owls into the netlanes audiolure is used. Audiolure is simply the broadcast of an owls call.In spring and fall both Saw-whet and Boreal Owl calls are broadcast, only saw-whet calls are broadcast in the summer. We do not wear gloves while getting extracting owls from the nets or during the banding and measuring proccess. Like many other things, these procedures are more difficult when wearing gloves. Extractions in particular are already difficult and would be virtually impossible while wearing heavy gloves. Yes, we do occasionally get bit or have the birds get us with their talons, and yes it does hurt. To band and weigh the owls they are placed in cans. This is the common practice when banding birds of prey and actually serves to calm the birds down.

What data do we collect?
Each owl is fitted with an individually numbered U.S. Geological Survey band. These bands are issued to federally licensed bird banders by the Bird Banding Lab in Maryland. The main measurments we collect are weight, tail and wing chord length. If the bird has flight feather molt, the molt pattern is recorded. These measurements and the molt patterns help us determine the age and sex of many of the owls that are captured. The data, including the band number is then submitted to the Bird Banding Lab for inclusion in their database.