Sunday, October 23, 2011

Saw-whet Owl Season in Full Swing!

Saw-whet owl season is off to a great start with our first bird captured on Sept. 28. After 2 more attempts of nothing, the owls began to fly; as of October 22 we are up to 22 owls. Compare this to our 2009 season when we had 23 owls the entire season!

Thank you Steve King for this saw-whet photo! She can be adopted. Go to the Adopt An Owl tab for more details.




Here are the 2011 results so far:
9/28 = 1 AHY/F
10/11 = 0 owls captured
10/15 = 0 owls captured
10/17 = 2 owls captured: SY/M, HY/F
10/18 = 4 owls captured: HY/F, 2 AHY/F, HY/M
10/20 = 4 owls captured: 3 AHY/F, HY/M
10/21 = 7 owls captured: 3 AHY/F, 2 HY/F, HY/U, AHY/U
10/22 = 4 owls captured: HY/U, 3 AHY/F

HY = hatching year bird, a bird hatched in 2011
AHY = After hatch year, a bird hatched before 2011

This year so far we have a 50/50 ratio of adults to hatching year birds. We like to see a high proportion of hatching year birds which indicates a high reproductive year for the saw-whets. We will see what the rest of the season brings.




No comments:

Post a Comment