At CSU Chico Reserve's we have banded almost 900 owls since we first opened the monitoring station in 2005. This is the very first time another station has recaptured one of the banded owls from our site. And look at the traveling this little lady did~ approximately 800 miles straight line distance! Of course that probably was not her flight itinerary, maybe making stops in Oregon and Washington? You can see by the banding certificate and map below sent to the "finder" by the Bird Banding Laboratory that we at the BCCER site captured the bird as a Hatch Year (she was hatched in 2017) during fall migration.
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Information and points where this female HY bird
was banded (blue, 2017) and recaptured (yellow, 2018) |
Then, this October 2018, Rocky Point Bird Observatory in Canada, netted her again during fall migration. It's been a full year since her original band date. Where has she been? We can only guess between point A and B but I assume she flew north in the winter/spring 2017 to breed, maybe somewhere in Canada. Then she flew south through the tip of Vancouver Island at the RPBO. Here her information was input into the BBL's "
report a band site" by Rebecca and she received the certificate of appreciation showing the owl's information.
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The certificate banders receive from the Bird Banding Lab
when they report a banded bird |
Foreign Recoveries (a recapture of another stations bird), are much more common where the NSWO banding stations are denser, like back east and Canada. They are valuable to determine timing, direction and distance of migrating owls, and longevity. Check out the map below for active owl stations across the country
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| Map of active NSWO banding stations (red dots) in 2010 |
A thrilling payoff after sending off 900 owls without hearing from them again! What a legacy you've created Dawn, being continued now by Ken and so many helpers over the years!
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