Final owl banding post

It’s official, the fall owl banding season is over. We took down the nets today and closed up the camper which Ed then hauled away prior to the wind storm coming in tomorrow.

We ended up with 408 Northern Saw Whet Owls. Or maybe 411. Or even 413. My spreadsheet gives me different answers depending upon which data set I use. Goes to show you what happens when you enter data while sleep deprived. But I had 408 for two different data points so I am going with that. In addition we had 7 Barred Owls and 2 Long Eared Owls. Very annoyingly we caught both Long Eared Owls in early October before we started using an audio lure with the male vocalization with intermittent vole squeaks. Somehow other stations capture many more long eareds with an audio lure but they don’t seem to respond to the lure here at Point LaBarbe. Hopefully some day the secret to catching long eareds at Point LaBarbe will be discovered. I tried but failed. Too many variables to test. Good luck!

I want to thank the MSRW board for giving me this opportunity. Working at one of the northern great lakes banding stations has always been a dream of mine. Now I can cross that off my bucket list. Also a thanks to Michael for sharing this experience with me and putting up with my goofy commentary. Especially thankful to my wife Maureen who kept up the household while I was away for 13 hours a day and sleeping or moping around the house for the remainder.

Keep up the good work you are doing here.