Our worst year yet, only capturing 9 owls all season! We did have a limited season due to Reserve access problems and also had to move our banding site. However, it is hard to say what to blame our slow season on. Other than the above changes, the drought and unseasonably warm temperatures could have played a part. Most of the banding nights were also very quiet, with no owls vocalizing, leading us to think there were none using the area. And only one night of calling Western Screech Owls, when last year they called regularly and we captured 7!
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| Saw-whet owl sitting in Black Oak Tree near new site OWL4 at the BCCER |
We banded 12 nights and banded 9 owls on 5 of those nights. 7 of the 9 owls were birds hatched the summer of 2014 (HY birds less than 5 months old) and 2 were adult birds (AHY), indicating a good reproductive year. Here were our banding nights and owl capture results:
Oct. 5, no captures
Oct. 11, no captures
Oct. 20, 2 HY
Oct. 27, 3 HY, 2 AHY
Oct. 29, 1 HY
Oct. 30, no captures
Nov. 1, no captures
Nov. 3 no captures
Nov. 5, no captures
Nov. 9, no captures
Nov. 14, 1 recapture (HY)
Nov. 23, 1 HY
Once again, thank you Owl Monitoring Team! 2014: regulars Steve King, Mike Fisher, Sheila Frisk, Nancy Nelson, Raina King, Tyler and JoAnna Arroyo, and newcomers Ken Sobon, Navit Reid and Carolyn Short.
