Remember a while back when the score between the mammals and the mist nets was 3-0, respectively? Well, score change!
On the very first net check, we had a northern flying squirrel in the audio lure net. I’ll admit, when I saw the red, beady eyes looking at me, I had mixed feelings. While flying squirrels are beautiful little creatures, I find their incisors to be a bit intimidating as well as their clingy, little appendages. Again, I’m grateful for gloves for this little guy was pretty feisty. It only took a minute or two before he was released and happily on his way. Luckily, no damage was done to the net, which often occurs when something other than a saw-whet lands in the net. Therefore, the score is now 3-1.
We’d caught three saw-whets last night by 0100 hrs and then the winds switched around to the southwest. This, not surprisingly, slowed everything down to a screeching halt and we didn’t catch anything else between 0100 hrs-0700 hrs.
We’re up to 224 saw-whets and 4 barred owls for the season. We’ll see what tonight brings!
