Given that we have yet to have a single night’s banding total hit double-digits, the nights have remained surprisingly steady. Over the past week we banded 38 Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and three Long-eared Owls (LEOW). Of the 38 NSWO, 34 were juveniles and four were adults.

This week we banded the 100th owl of the summer, including the season’s first Long-eared Owl. It was actually on this date, July 21, 2006 that I found a roosting long-eared that led to start of the summer owl research at Whitefish Point.

We just completed the second week of the summer season and the owls have been slow but steady. I’m happy to have been joined by Holly Erickson, who will be my banding partner for the season, at the start of the week. The juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) have picked up a bit over the last few nights, with 14 being banded over the last five nights. Last night was the first night that juveniles outnumbered adults, with five juveniles and four adults banded.

We started the 20th season of summer owl banding at Whitefish Point on July 1. We never quite know what to expect at the start of the summer season. The vast majority of the owls that have been banded during the summer have been juvenile plumage Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO). The number of juveniles banded each year varies significantly with the natural 4-5 year breeding cycle of NSWO.

Every banding season, we capture a number of owls that are already banded. These captures are always very exciting for us, it’s like a little feather-wrapped gift, and we love anticipating whether it is a bird we banded in a previous year, or from another part of the country! This spring, we had 45 encounters: 41 saw-whets (NSWO), three long-eareds (LEOW) and one barred (BAOW).

Now that we have finished the spring banding season, we would like to simply thank you all so much for being part of this new organization. The genesis of the Friends of Whitefish Point and the transfer of the owl banding only occurred last November, and everything that we have accomplished in these last several months has been such a collective effort.

Despite having written dozens of owl banding summaries in the past, I have been failing miserably at writing this one. It’s not summarizing the banding season that is defeating me, it is finding the proper words to express our immense gratitude for the support that you have all provided us with.

As the end of the field season quickly approaches, we wanted to give a quick update and some new nature notes for you. It has been an interesting last week.