Hey everyone! Hannah and Jadine are back with a quick week 2 update on the owl banding at MSRW. So far this season we have caught 45 Northern saw-whet owls in total and 1 Barred owl. Our busiest night was September 29th-September 30th and we caught 12 owls!! Again we are hoping after this heat dissipates migration will really kick into high gear.
Pictured: First Barred Owl of the season! This was a hatch-year bird.
Today we wanted to discuss some other noteworthy captures. We have some interesting non-owl species grace our nets. Including two different species of thrush (Thrush are a songbird in the Turdidae family, and some common members of this family are American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds). Can you guess the thrush species we captured based on these photos? Check next week’s blog to see the answer!
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Another interesting species we had in the nets is the Eastern Whip-poor-will! Now these birds are active at night but they are not owls. Whip-poor-will are from the family Caprimulgidae which includes birds like the common nighthawk. Caprimulgiformes are an odd group of birds with very short legs, and bills, but very long wings. Despite Whip-poor-will’s tiny bill their mouth is actually quite large and is used in capturing insects in flight. This older male bird was a treat to see!
Pictured: Male Eastern Whip-poor-will
But let us not forget who we are truly here for, Northern saw-whet owls! Let’s talk about why they have such a weird and long name despite being such a small bird. If you have been out to an owl banding station or out birding at the right time of year you may have heard the song of the male Saw-whet. It is a very characteristic repetitive tooting. So, as the story goes, back in the day when the settlers heard this song it reminded them of sharpening a saw on a whetstone. That is how we got to saw-whet owl!
