Well folks, we did it! This last week we managed to surpass a total of 600 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO)! We had a couple of busy nights provided by decent weather which managed to push us over the 600 goal.
In addition to having success with the NSWO’s, we also added three Barred Owls (BDOW) to our prior total of two, making a total of five so far this season. This is more than typically caught during the fall. Another interesting aspect is that one of the BDOW’s that we caught was an after second year (ASY) male. Usually the ones caught at this time of year are roaming hatch year (HY) males that don’t have a territory yet. This could be for a variety of reasons such as their territory not having enough prey species or there could have been human disturbances on their territory.
The weather for this last week of our fall season is showing some rainy nights. Will we manage to beat the current record of NSWO’s for one season (647)? We shall see!
