Speaking of bigger fish, the great white shark of owls showed up last night. A Barred Owl was found in the nets near a saw whet in the wee hours of the night. Uninvited at that. Although I guess you could say we are laying out a buffet by luring and concentrating Saw-whets at our nets. Can’t blame the Barred Owl for trying to take advantage of our unintended hospitality. Thankfully no blood no foul. Both birds were extracted, banded and released. Understandably the Saw-whet was particularly peeved during the whole process. After dodging the bullet of the Barred Owl it then had to withstand an even bigger menace, me. It extracted some measure of revenge judging by the pin pricks on my hands today. I had it coming so can’t complain.
Michael did a bang up job handling the Barred Owl during the whole banding process. Quite the difference between a Saw-whet and a Barred. Definitely need to be on our toes handling a bird that big and powerful. Way to go Michael. Exciting to get the Barred but would rather they stay away. For our sake and the Saw-whets.
