Passed 100

Last night, our ninth of banding, we passed 100 Northern Saw-whet Owls captured, banded and released. Ended the night with 110 total. Of those 110 five were already banded. Unfortunately only one of these foreign recaptures had information on file at the USGS Bird Banding Lab, the one from the Thunder Bay, ON, area. The other four recaps had no available info so I have to assume that they were banded this year with their data not yet sent to the BBL. Usually this banding data is sent at the end of the year so we probably won’t know until next year where these birds were originally banded.

The moon is now in the fourth phase and rising after midnight so it is pretty dark for much of the night. Supposedly good conditions for saw whets to migrate. Cover of darkness possibly masking their progress from potential predators. Who would possibly want to harm such adorable creatures? Remember, there is always a bigger fish. Or in this case, owl. This is nature in tooth and claw. No family affinity. Every creature is just a packet of energy, eating other packets of energy while trying to not become a packet of energy for some one else, even their bigger cousins.