100th owl of the season banded! Also our third barred owl of the season. Owl migration appears to be slowing down, with some individuals trickling through occasionally.
RECAP UPDATE! Extracting previously banded birds is always exciting, as if offers insight into bird movement. So far we have 10 NSWO recaptures; six of which were banded in fall 2021/2022 at Point LaBarbe, MSRW’s fall owl banding site north of the bridge; and one Mill Creek recapture originally banded in spring 2022. Additionally, a ‘swet originally banded in fall 2022 near Danville, Illinois (a fitting town name), was recaptured at Mill Creek this spring–a straight line distance of about 420 mi (670 km)! This shows, with the assistance of the Great Lakes, how great a funnel Michigan is when it comes to raptor migration. Another NSWO was caught and banded by local bander a few miles down the road from our net array, that we caught a few hours later. At least some of the time, these birds hug the Huron shoreline going north as far as they can before making the danger-trek across the straits.
Calm, rainless weather in the forecast. Still a few more nights of trapping until nets are closed for the season!
Total Owls to date:
Northern Saw-whet Owl: 97
Barred Owl: 3
Total: 100
