I’ll start off by saying that the night of October 27th was exceptional because it surpassed our previously most productive night of the fall (39 birds), with 42 birds. I think it is quite remarkable that so many birds are moving this far into the season, however it could be the birds were pinioned by rough weather and were forced to exodus en masse through our area when the weather cleared.
On October 28th, an incoming rain necessitated that I closed up the set around 10 pm, but before that I got to enjoy the presence of this barred owl. All of the barred owls captured thus far have been juveniles, presumably passing through the area as they search for a suitable territory to call home.
October 29th was calm and steady, at 13 saw-whet owls… until a snowshoe hare got tangled up in one of the nets. It was an awful doozy getting that animal out. But it came out regardless and we were both unharmed in the process!… except for the nets, the hare did some decent damage to the nets…
The following night (October 30) was a short night by virtue of the rain, but we still sent two saw-whet owls on their merry way.
Halloween was quite peaceful; I couldn’t operate the station at full capacity because of the off-and-on sleet, so instead I kept a watchful eye on the nearby nets. I captured four saw-whets; the little company was nice, considering no trick-or-treaters decided to brave the bitter winds of Pt. laBarbe. But that was probably for the best anyway, as I only had one piece of candy to give out. I guess I could have fell back on my supply of brussel sprouts, but I suspect that wouldn’t have gone over well.
And as for last night – the station was completely shut down due to wind and rain.
Tonight, weather conditions look… OK for movement, not ideal but hopefully the saw-whets will get their little feather-butts in gear before nightly weather conditions worsen.
Totals!
NSWO – 270 (256 newly banded, 13 foreign retraps, 1 Pt.laBarbe recapture)
BDOW – 4
LEOW – 2
As an aside, from my previous post I mentioned that barred owl waddling around my saw-whet owl set. A volunteer, Brenda Summers, was with me that morning and would like to share her photo of me taking this glamour shot (or a mug shot?) of the owl:
Until next time,
Maycee
