We’ve reached the end of our second week of owl banding, and being someone who has followed previous MSRW owl banding blog posts, I can say our 2026 spring owl banding season doesn’t differ much from others during the second week of the season. The commonality being the weather, and how reliably it interrupts this time of year for owl banding. The one predictability we have is that the weather will be unpredictable!
We are always on high alert for changing weather conditions ranging from high winds that may move in mid evening, to a pop-up thunderstorm during the wee hours of the morning. We faced these conditions and more in the past week, causing us to close early two of the past seven nights, and not open at all on the night of the 27th due to snow, wind, and a temperature that dropped below our threshold for banding. We also had a night with not a single owl caught all night. In spite of the weather, we do get the opportunity to appreciate moments relative to this work and the hours we operate.
Our totals for week two didn’t yield the number of owls we had for week one. We banded 20 owls, which would have been a lot fewer had we not managed to catch 9 Northern Saw-whet Owls on the night of the 31st/1st. No April Fool’s Day joke there.
With our second week of banding behind us, we look forward to the weather improving, the snow melting, and the opportunity to see more owls come through the area. We will keep you posted.
Season Totals:
Banded NSWO: 47
NSWO Foreign Recaptures: 4
Total: 51