I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I have to say it again: catching a banded bird is so exciting!
We captured another 14 northern saw-whets last night and, you guessed it, one was banded. Her band was really dirty and needed to be wiped down before I could make out any digits. Evidence of a breeding bird, which makes me happy. After a few minutes of scrubbing, I retrieved the band info and submitted it to the banding lab. She was banded on 1 November 2012 near Newark, Greene County, Indiana as a hatch year bird. Last night, she weighed in at a healthy 99 grams and we aged her as an after second year bird, which means that she’s older than two years.
The official count is 204 northern saw-whets and four barred owls. (In case anyone noticed, there was a bit of an adding error on my behalf from earlier in the week. It has been corrected and the above numbers are up-to-date.)
Tonight doesn’t look all that great. There is currently a stiff south wind that is supposed to increase to around 10-15 mph. We probably won’t catch many owls, but I’m hoping for a few since we have a small group coming out tonight.
Stay tuned.
