Few occasions bring an owl bander sheer joy like a Boreal Owl in the hand. They're gorgeous birds; big yellow eyes, dark facial fringe, a dense smattering of spots atop the head, and thickly feathered legs make them instantly endearing. It is their elusiveness, though, their quiet way of escaping eyes and ears in nearly all instances that truly makes them magical to behold when you have the rare opportunity.

It was an exciting week for us here at the station. While the weekly numbers were not the highest of the season, we did have great species diversity and even a very exciting visitor!

With the Harvest/Super Moon looming overhead our nets have been empty more often than not. Of course, all is not lost; we did still have a trickle of Northern Saw-whet Owls coming through, giving us hope and joy when we really needed it. Though it was our slowest week, it was also our best week so far in terms of diversity.

The third week of fall owl banding consisted of a healthy mix of excitement and boredom. Towards the tail end of the month we were wondering if the Point’s streak for always having at least one Long-eared owl banded in September would be broken, but on Monday night lo and behold there were two that came through the station.

The second week of owl banding has been a super busy and fun one for us. The Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) numbers have been increasing, and we have had a lot of fun hosting groups at the station. There have been a few nights where the weather has not been in our favor, but overall the nights have been great.

While it may not have been a record-breaking first week, we are still excited to see what the fall season has in store for us. Every bird we process gives us valuable insight into owl populations and movements, we’re grateful for each one and can’t wait to band more. The temperatures are slowly dropping and the leaves are starting to change, promising signs that birds are in our future. 

We are excited to be part of a research project that is putting nanotags on Northern Saw-whet Owls and tracking their activity via Motus towers. This project is headed by Project Owlnet & Aaron Coolman, a master's student at University of Delaware, and aims to look at migratory connectivity for this species. As part of this project, we tagged 12 adults and 10 juveniles in summer 2024, and 10 adults and 5 juveniles in summer 2025.

It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Nova and I discovered and started the summer owl banding back 2006. I’ve donated a lot of blood to the mosquitoes working in the woods here at night over the last two decades, but it has been worth it. This season Holly Erickson and I banded 206 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and five Long-eared Owls (LEOW). Of the saw-whets banded this season, 60 were adults and 146 were juveniles.