If you’re tired of hearing about the poor weather and nights with only a few captures, I’m right there with you! This week, the weather has given us more slow nights with limited hours of nets being open, losing one full night and two nights with early closures due to rain and high wind speeds. It’s been a breezy week 4, leading us to a total of 56 Northern Saw-whet Owls.
Two female NWSO caught on a night with wind speeds around 10mph.
In more exciting news, there were two foreign recaptures this week! On April 18th at 6am an unknown sex NWSO was collected from the net and was found to be originally banded in October 2023 in Chesterton, Indiana as a third-year bird. The second recapture was a female NWSO on caught April 21st and was originally banded in July 2022 at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Chippewa County MI, as a second-year bird.
Left: Unknown sex foreign recap from Chesterton, IN after release. Right: Female foreign recap from Whitefish Point B.O., MI after release.
I’ve had some new species this week as well! Not owls, but new species nonetheless! My final checks before closing the nets are when I get to see the most activity from other species, and occasionally they get caught in the nets as well. This week I collected a Hermit Thrush (HETH) and a Sharped-shinned Hawk (SSHA) on separate days, but both at 6am.
Left: A Hermit Thrush (HETH). Right: A Sharp-shinned Hawk (SSHA).
