Week 4 of spring owl banding definitely brought us some ups and downs. The most positive event this past week was the crucial help from Ed Pike, Scott Davis, Nick Aliato, and Emily Pierce (our spring lead raptor bander) on Friday April 10th to help us get the remainder of our nets put up. With all hands on deck, we were able to accomplish the job in just under two hours, and we’re finally fully operational, or are we?
As most of Michigan can relate to at this point, the weather continues to be a source of frustration for us. With five straight nights of storms and steady rain this past week, which has definitely taken its toll on the Cheboygan area and beyond, our banding efforts were at a standstill.
In the past week since our last blog post, we were only able to open two of the past seven nights and caught a total of eight Northern Saw-whet Owls. Of those eight owls, all of them were aged as second year (SY) owls. Second year owls are those that were born last year, and are now on their second calendar year of life. Less than half of the Northern Saw-whet Owls born last year will make it to their second year, so it’s exciting for us to see so many older owls at this point in the season. Currently, over 60% of the owls we’ve caught and banded, have been aged as second year owls, so we’re hopeful they’ll carry on long and healthy lives.
On a positive note, spring is definitely trying to make its presence known. We’re hearing and seeing so many more birds in recent days. We had a Ruffed Grouse just outside our cabin door working on some buds, high up in a nearby tree. We’ve heard Eastern Phoebe, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Song Sparrows, and Brown Creepers moving in to the area, and are seeing Sandhill Cranes, America Kestrel, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawks, and Turkey Vultures in greater numbers. Now we just need the weather to cooperate so we can start catching some owls.
Season Totals:
Banded NSWO: 64
NSWO Foreign Recaptures: 8
Total: 72