Early May Update
Although the owls slowed down a bit since the last update, it was still a decent week. We banded 71 owls since our last post, which is pretty good considering the cold and windy conditions we’ve been experiencing. It’s clearly proving to be a particularly low spring for saw-whets, so 31 more this week isn’t too bad. Two boreals were a welcome sight, doubling the season’s totals. Barred Owls were the one species that picked up this week, with six banded. The long-eareds have remained steady, but the weather slowed them down a bit with 31 banded since our last post.
We always love seeing the nictitating membrane on Barred Owls. As the only dark-eyed owl we band here, the nictitating membrane stands out much more when they blink. This “extra” eyelid is an opaque membrane that looks blue and helps to clean and protect the eye.
A Barred Owl’s nictitating membrane.
We enjoyed visits from our friends and fellow owl researchers Dave Brinker and Hannah Toutonghi this week. They were incredibly in helpful in helping us prepare for our new Long-eared Owl satellite transmitter research project. Dave is our science advisor, and co-founder of Project Owlnet, Project Snowstorm and the Northeast Motus Colaboration among many other things. Hannah was my banding partner for two summer owl banding seasons here and put transmitters on Northern Hawk Owls for her master’s degree. If you have seen the movie “Listers” you may also recognize Hannah’s name from her appearances in the movie (check it out on youtube, it is hilarious). Dave and Hannah were incredibly helpful getting this new project properly set up and ready to go. More updates will be coming as we get the study going.
Dave Brinker with his first Boreal Owl.
A collection of owl banders- perhaps a "mist-net of owl banders” would work.
In addition to the owls, we banded the season’s first American Woodcock. It’s always a treat to see this beautiful and somewhat bizarre birds up close. It’s crazy to compare the front and rear view of their eyes (bottom photo). They have binocular vision to their rear, presumably to help them avoid being attacked from behind as they feed probing the ground with their bills.
American Woodcock.
Front (right) and rear (left) views of the eyes.
Banding Totals:
Saw-whet: 176 banded & 10 recaptured
Long-eared: 134 banded & 1 recaptured
Barred: 9
Boreal: 4
Total: 323 banded & 11 recaptured
BIRDATHON SHIRTS:
Only TWO DAYS LEFT to get your limited-edition Birdathon shirt by artist Tom Ford! The deadline for ordering is May 7th, and there are several colors and shirt styles to choose from. Go to this link to order: www.friendsofwp.org/birdathon or click on the image below.
