Week 8!
Our final week has arrived, and we are officially done with the 2022 Fall Owl Banding season. And boy what a season! This was the second busiest fall banding season since we started banding on Point LaBarbe in 2014. Before I reveal the grand totals, I would like to state that there was an error in our total count. I blame the lack of sleep. But that’s a small price to pay when living the exciting life of a biologist. That’s what proofing the data is for! We did not reach our goal of 600, but Hannah and I are quite proud of our grand total of 585 NSWO!
This number is a combination of our newly banded NSWO this season (549) and our foreign retraps (36) which are owls banded elsewhere and recaptured in our nets this fall. The total of our other species is 5 Barred Owls, 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk, and 2 Long-eared Owls! We were lucky enough to capture one more LEOW on our final night.
Overall, Hannah and I had an incredible season and walked away as stronger and more knowledgeable biologists. One of the best things about this season was meeting all the wonderful people in this community! Thank you for being so kind, caring, and supportive of the work being done at MSRW.
We want to thank everyone who helped us along this season, especially our boss and teacher, Ed Pike, and executive director of MSRW, Scott Davis, as well as those who brought us supplies when needed and always made sure that we were doing alright, Steve Baker, Jeff Dykehouse, and Bev and Jack Kirby. Thank you to John and Tracy for letting us use your guest house and to those who shared their delicious food with us. We would also like to thank all the groups that came out and braved the cold weather with us so that we could educate them about MSRW, Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO), and the banding process, and hopefully about the importance of field jobs like these. This season was truly incredible and a lot of fun. Thanks to those who kept up with our adventures this season! Be sure to check back in the spring!
– Hannah and Jodi
