Good evening MSRW blog followers! Just a quick update on what has been going on. On September 27th we had our nets open all night and were able to catch 9 more Saw-whets. The season total is now at 52!
The excitement of last night was catching an ASY (After Second Year) female. This means that this bird is in at least its third year of life. We know this by examining the remiges (flight feathers) under UV light to see which feathers fluoresce pink. More pink means newest or the freshest feathers and if we see little or none it is an older feather that has not been replaced or was replaced quite a while ago. Thus the picture below shows three generations of feathers meaning the bird is at least in its third year!! We wish her a successful migration and hopefully she will return next spring to raise a family.
