Mid-May Owl Update
This past week started off with a night of just two owls, then a night of three. We were ready for the owls to really go into the lull we experience at this time of the season, but they actually picked up a little bit again in recent nights. Although it was relatively slow compared to past weeks, we banded 50 owls this week which is not bad for this time of the year. After banding just three Long-eared Owls during the first three nights this week and thinking they were effectively done for the spring, we banded 13 over the next two nights. The long-eared migration can both start with a bang in the beginning and stop on a dime when their migration ends. We hope to have a couple more decent late-season nights with them, but we also know they could come to an abrupt stop any given night now. Likewise, saw-whets have shown some little spikes just as we thought they were going to go into a serious lull for a week or two. After banding two each of the first two nights of the week, we banded 21 over the next two nights. So, things are unpredictable from night-to-night right now and we are past the peak of owl migration, but overall, the nights have remained productive for this point in the season.
At this time of the year, it is not uncommon for us to see saw-whets that have started the early stages of their body molt. We see them at much more progressed stages of their annual molt in the summer, but we start seeing them molting their leg and feet feathers around now, and we caught our first bare-legged saw-whet last night. Their legs and feet are normally beautifully feathered, as are those of the other owls we work with here. Seeing them without those feathers typically elicits a response of “yikes”, or something of that sort from us. Those legs are not pretty under the feathers. (photo below).
Another common occurrence at this time of the year is our complaining about how cold the nights remain. With the exception of last night, temperatures dropped into the 20’s every night, and into the teens on Saturday night. We are still wearing the same types of layers we wore all winter. Whenever either one of us whines too much about the cold in mid-May, the other reminds us both that there is currently no snow and no mosquitoes. We never allow ourselves to forget what a glorious time of year it is when the winter snow has melted and the summer mosquitoes have yet to hatch at Whitefish Point.
We’ll talk more about Long-eared Owls in a future post, but meanwhile, below is a photo with a male on the left and a female on the right.
Nature Notes:
Some moths are appearing and we heard our first Eastern Whip-poor-will of the season last night. More moth species have been documented at Whitefish Point than bird species. I’ve had to change my moth setup due to our new location, but I’m excited about it (photo below).
Spring Banding Totals:
Northern Saw-whet Owl: 436
Boreal Owl: 9
Long-eared Owl: 214
Barred Owl: 5
Great Horned Owl: 1
In other news, it is the last week of registration for the First Annual Birdathon for the Friends of Whitefish Point! Registration will be open through Thursday the 15th at midnight. Don’t forget that you can sign up to participate in either the full Birdathon with a team or just register for the Birdathon dinner in Paradise at the community center on May 17th: www.friendsofwp.org/birdathon. The Birdathon dinner will be served by our local catering company Ebbys, and Alison Vilag will be giving a great presentation about a new raptor banding endeavor in the Keeweenaw Peninsula. It should be a great evening!
