Unusual first owl of the season
Last night was the official start to the spring owl banding. The weather actually cooperated for this one night, although now we are in the middle of a 2-day, possibly record-breaking blizzard. If you haven’t heard about this storm, they are calling for 2-3 ft of snow over the region. It is always a bit alarming when the forecast predicts snowfall levels in feet rather than inches.
At the start of each spring, the first owl of the season is almost always a saw-whet owl. They typically are migrating through before other species and we have had some years where we’ve captured 200 in March. This may not be one of those years, because last night we did not see a single saw-whet owl. However, we were treated to a gorgeous Barred Owl instead! This is the first time we’ve ever had a Barred Owl as the first of season, and in fact it is the earliest date that this species has been captured during spring owl banding. Only two other years have had Barred Owl captures in March: two birds in 2017 (on March 29 and 31) and one bird in 2018 (on March 27). Local residents have been seeing a few Barreds this winter so it wasn’t totally unexpected, but it was a nice surprise. This individual was also extremely healthy and one of the largest and most beautiful Barred Owls we have ever captured. It was a great start to the season!
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