End of Fall banding season
The very last owl captured during the fall 2025 banding season.
Alright, folks. I’m on day four of being diurnal again, so bear with me.
Just like that, fall banding has come to a close. It seems every field season I’ve worked has gone by faster than the last. Perhaps that’s just how it feels getting old, but I think it also speaks to the way time in the field is so precious and to how valuable every moment spent with the birds is.
The last week itself was pretty slow. We had a few nights where we processed three or four birds and a few where we processed zero. The end of October is often uneventful so none of this was necessarily unexpected. We were happy for the seven Northern Saw-whet Owls that we got - any owls make it worth it. The season as a whole was decent in terms of numbers; we finished with 170 birds banded from four species (NSWO, LEOW, BOOW, BAOW), the vast majority of those being saw-whets.
Checking out the molt pattern on a saw-whet owl.
Of course, the numbers only tell part of the story. They don’t include all the times that the saw-whets slowly blinked their feathery lashes, can’t account for all the walks to the sound of the chorus of peepers. The twenty books read by Bridget and I in between net checks aren’t factored in. This season was full of so many things. Like Blue-spotted Salamanders dragging their bellies in the sand and Aurora Borealis flickering in the sky and seemingly endless support from the community. We are so lucky to have experienced it all.
Blue-spotted Salamander
There are so many people who made this season possible. Thank you to all of you. It has made me so happy to be back at Whitefish Point. This really is a special place, wildlife and community alike. Special thanks to Bridget (Assistant Owl Bander), Chris and Nova (my mentors/ bosses/ biggest supporters), and the super kind people who housed me and Bridget.
-Liv Ridley, Fall Lead Owl Bander
Season Total: 170
Northern Saw-whet Owls: 158
Boreal Owls: 3
Long-eared Owls: 7
Barred Owls: 2
Other News:
This week we closed down the banding station trailer and volunteers Jan & Curt helped us take it for a ride down to Paradise. The Wheelhouse Diner very generously offered to store it for us in their barn and we are so grateful to have a place undercover for the winter. Please stop by and thank them on our behalf if you are in town. Better yet, try some of their great food- they now have brunch on the weekends. www.wheelhousedinerandgoatlockersaloon.com
Presentation in lower Michigan this coming weekend:
This week we were contacted by neighbors who had found an owl on the side of the road up here by Whitefish Point. It was a Barred Owl that looked like it was hit by a car. Thanks to the help of this great community up here, we were able to get it a ride down to the Raptor Rehab facility in Traverse City on the same day. A huge thank you to all who helped with this unexpected situation.