How has the end of the banding season already come?! It feels like I just got to Mackinaw City last week, but I’ve been netting owls for over 6 weeks now! But looking back at my data now after catching up on sleep, I can tell I’ve had some late nights because I totally miscounted the number of owls I had this season and completely skipped a data sheet… I’ve actually captured 91 birds for the season, not in the 70s like I had counted before!
In this final week, I had a small uptick in captures compared to last week at 8 new birds. I had wondered last week if the pattern of Second Year birds being captured would continue, but this week mainly After Third Year birds came through the nets. Of the 8 birds captured, 4 were After Third Year, 3 were Third Year, and only 1 was Second Year, with 4 birds also having brood patches.
Left: A large, female NWSO showing a brood patch on her abdomen. Notice the lack of feathers and pink color implying the presence of a brood patch. Right: A female NWSO looking over her shoulder after release.
After over 6 weeks of banding, we have ended the season at 91 Northern Saw-Whet Owls and 1 Barred Owl caught between March 23rd and May 10th. Of these 91 NWSO, there were 80 females, 2 males, and 9 sexed as unknown as they fell between the required measurements for mass and wing cord. There were 7 foreign recaptures from Cedar Grove, WI, Whitefish Point, MI, and Chesterton, IN. It was also reported that 3 NWSO banded by MSRW at Point LaBarbe in the fall of 2022 were recaptured at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in early April.
Left: A female NWSO perched after release. Right: A female NWSO checking out her surroundings after release.
It has been such a fun season for me and I’m so grateful to have been part of MSRW’s team! Thank you to everyone who is part of MSRW and to the owls for such a great experience! We ended the season with 91 Northern Saw-Whet Owls and 1 Barred Owl, hopefully all those brood patches mean good numbers in the fall!
