First Week of Owl Banding
As is typical for late March at the Point, recent nights have produced a mix of weather conditions over the past few nights. Periods of high winds and snow have kept us closed some nights, but we’ve had decent conditions as well. So far this spring we have banded 53 Northern-Saw-whet Owls (NSWO) and recaptured four more that were previously banded. Two of the recaptured owls were originally banded at the Point, one last year in May and the other in April 2022 (pictured below). The other two recaptures were both banded in the fall of 2022, one was banded at the Mackinaw Straits and the other at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN. The owl migration in March here is highly variable from year-to-year. In the past we have banded as few as eight owls during a particularly harsh, wintry March, but as many as 93 on a single March night during an early spring. It looks like we’re going to have some more periods of bad weather conditions over the coming nights, but we expect the saw-whets to continue in decent early season numbers when the conditions are good.
-Chris Neri, Owl Banding Manager
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A saw-whet from April 2022.
Chris checking a saw-whet wing for molt.