Hey folks! Before we dive into how our season has been going, allow us to (re)introduce ourselves.
My name is Hannah Glass, and I am the lead owl bander this spring. You may recognize me from previous seasons: assistant owl bander in the fall of 2022 and assistant raptor trapper in the spring of 2023 and 2024. If you don’t, here is a little bit about me. I was born and raised in southern Virginia where from an early age, my dad cultivated a love of birds and all things nature, taking me along on frequent birding trips around the state. Later, I attended Virginia Tech, graduating with a degree in Wildlife Conservation in 2020 and having a few seasons of field work under my belt conducting avian point counts. Being able to work with birds during my college summers and learn about opportunities in the field of avian conservation really propelled me to continue seeking similar positions.
Since then, I have held a multitude of jobs working with various species of birds across the United States, including saltmarsh sparrows, yellow rails, golden-cheeked warblers, nesting passerines in the Ozarks, northern saw-whet owls, diurnal raptors in the eastern and western US, piping plovers, waterfowl, Wilson’s plovers, black skimmers, American oystercatchers, and seabirds. After working with raptors for other entities including Cape May Raptor Banding Project, Intermountain Bird Observatory, and Hawk Watch International, I am so excited to come back to work for MSRW for my 4th season!
My name is Alex Johnson, and I am the assistant owl bander this spring. I’m from East Lansing, MI and most recently served as the Site Operations Coordinator for the Michigan State Bird Observatory (MSBO) where we operated two bird banding stations located in Laingsburg and Bath, MI. My field experience includes work as a mist-net technician and bander at both Burke Lake Banding Station and the Corey Marsh Ecological Research Center, where I also had the pleasure of mentoring MSU students in their research projects of nestbox monitoring, banding nestlings, and Sedge Wren nest searches. Beyond my fieldwork, I have been actively involved with several Audubon societies and bird sanctuaries as both a volunteer and board member, and currently serve as the Statewide Monitoring Director for the Michigan Bluebird Society. I’m excited to be working with MSRW during the spring owl banding season.
This season has gotten off to a blustery start. With one of Michigan’s worst snow storms in decades descending upon us right as the season was supposed to begin, we had to delay setting nets. As you may imagine, setting up mist nets with two feet of snow of the ground is no easy task, but with the help of Ed Pike, we were able to set six of our fifteen nets up thus far. For the first several nights we had to snowshoe to check our nights, but since then we have worn down a nice trail in the snow that is relatively easy to walk now.
Our first official night of trapping was on March 20th. We were not expecting much with all of the inclement weather, but to our delight, we caught four Northern saw-whet owls (NSWO)! Since night one, we have been able to open nets every night, but three nights required early closing to due snow and rain. Our current total sits at 27 NSWO banded this season and 3 foreign recaptures from other banding sites. Keep your fingers crossed for better weather conditions as we head into our next week!
Season Totals:
Banded NSWO: 27
NSWO foreign recaptures: 3
Total: 30