Well, I wasn’t bombarded with owls last night. I know it’s getting a little late in the migration, but I figured with as hot and cold as the migration has been this fall we’d see a couple more good pushes of birds. Last night was not one of them and I couldn’t help but wonder why. Ed thinks that the lack of wind kept the birds from moving much and I tend to agree with him. Of course, this is all just speculation, but perhaps the owls prefer to move when there is a bit of a wind for them to take advantage of. That way they conserve a bit of energy on their journey south versus flapping the entire time. Last night was dead calm for the most part and the big lake was like glass.
Eight new Northern Saw-whet Owls were captured and banded last night and all three net locations saw a little action from the birds. Most interesting, in my opinion, was a saw-whet captured in the Long-eared Owl audio lure location directly below the audio lure. This is the second saw-whet capture in this location, so perhaps the audio lure doesn’t deter saw-whets from moving through that area like we had wondered.
Tonight looks like a wash with the rain/drizzle predicted. It looks like it could clear up after midnight, so, if that happens, the nets will be dropped and we’ll give it a try. Winds are predicted to be light SSE.
