Our final week at the straits has come and gone! This was an incredible season filled with lots of owls and wonderful visitors. Over the course of this season we captured 383 Northern saw-whet owls, 11 Barred owls, and 6 Long-eared owls. 11 Barred owls beats MSRW’s previous record of 7 in one season by 4! This season though was an average year for Northern saw-whet owls. We were lucky enough to have some pretty special bycatch we had an Eastern whip-poor-will, Hermit thrush, Grey-cheeked thrush, a Little brown bat, and an American woodcock who became a regular for a couple weeks in October.
Jadine and I had a wonderful season at MSRW. Watching every sunset and sunrise over the bridge was incredible. The amazing wildlife we got to watch in the wee hours of the night was also spectacular the point is so active! Jadine and I both got opportunities to grow and build skills that will help us in our future careers!
We would like to thank all the wonderful Board Members of MSRW, Gayle Kirby, Jeff Dykehouse, Cathy Freebairn, Linda Orlow, Russ Edmonds, John Frederickson, John Merrill, Bert Ebbers, Michael Turisk, and Will Peregord. We also want to extend a special thanks to Scott Davis and Ed Pike who both showed us so much support. Finally, we want to thank all the wonderful visitors who sacrificed warm nights at home to come learn about owls with us, and thank you to everyone who brought us snacks it was greatly appreciated and such a good morale booster on nights without many owls!
