Things at the Straits have been rather uneventful lately as far as the owl migration goes. Ed and I were hopeful that the night of the 26th would be busy due to a break in the weather, but the winds swung around to the south and the owls quit moving after 0030 hrs. That made for a bit of a long night as I’m sure you can imagine. I do net checks every half hour and every half hour until 0700 hrs my hope was crushed (the drama!). Sometimes, with owl banding, a little self-torture is involved, which is fine. When the owls do cooperate, though, it’s totally worth it. Anyhow, we ended up with nine more saw-whets that night.
We didn’t open the nets on the 27th or 28th due to rain and high winds. Tonight, however, looks good and we’re hoping for a big push of birds before the next batch of rain and, dare I say, snow. Stay tuned.
