WPBO Owls Fall 2010

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

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!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

So this week has been pretty huge for owl migration. The night before last was WPBO's biggest night of owls ever, with 122 banded (112 saw-whets, 7 boreals, 2 long-eareds, and 1 barred). To put this into perspective, prior to using the audiolure in spring, our highest number of banded saw-whets in an entire spring was 122 in 1998. The highest total owls captured in a season was 252 in 1995. In the last week, we have banded over 330 owls. This peak is corresponding pretty closely with the sharp-shinned hawks this year. Calvin had over 1700 yesterday at the hawk watch.

Last night we captured an owl that was originally banded here in the spring of 2004. This makes it a 5 year old saw-whet! Our encountered (banded previously) owls this year are starting to add up- so far we have about 15 of them. This will ultimately give us lots of information about the migration patterns in our location.

For those people who have called asking about the status of the migration...it is in full swing now.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Well, the migration has definitely picked up the pace this week. After a couple of days with bad weather, the front moved out, and we had a nice night of 62 owls captured, including our first Barred Owl- I guess Keith and Wendy missed one last fall! There is still a small trickle of Boreals, and the occasional Long-eared as well. We have been getting some encounters as well. Last night we captured one Saw-whet that was banded by us last spring as a first-year bird. Good to know that it survived the winter.

For your snow update: We've actually been able to see the ground in a few spots the last couple of days. Very encouraging! Hopefully a bit/some/most of it will be gone by spring fling weekend. If you haven't already signed up for spring fling, check out the website for the info. We will be giving an owl presentation (like last year). Don't let that scare you away!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Well, we've been too busy to blog, which is a good thing! The last few nights have been very good, with a steady southerly breeze, and warmer temperatures. We've banded about 110 owls in 3 nights, mostly Saw-whets. The Long-eareds have started to migrate, but the Boreals seem to have slowed down.

For people hoping to visit WPBO in the next week or so, the birds are migrating, but the snow is not yet gone. We would advise you to bring snowshoes or skis if you hope to walk the trails.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Well, the owls have just started picking up slightly. Boreal Owl captures have not only continued, but we are currently catching more Boreals than Saw-whets (photo: Boreal on left, Saw-whet on right). Overall, our nights have been fairly slow, with 8 owls ( 7 BOOW, 1 NSWO) being our biggest night to date. Snow levels have not decreased much, we are still at about 3 ft in the net lanes.

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.