The 2020 Season began with 8 owls! What a great start!
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
2020, Master Bander Ken Sobon takes on the Station and the Blog, Pass the Birdbling Please!
In 2017, I (Dawn) retired from directing the owl program and was thrilled when my subpermittee Ken Sobon said he wanted to continue the project. Long term monitoring of a species reveals population trends and is valuable to identify changes over time with our changing climate, prey fluctuations, regional fires, etc. We've learned so much over the 12 years that I ran the station, including, there is so much more to learn. It's all been such an incredible part of my life in Northern California and now, time for a new chapter. I'm sure there will be owls involved!. Ken has put in hours of banding, enhanced the program with nest boxes and technology, and is a competent leader. He has recently received his Master Banding Permit. CONGRATULATIONS! Ken will also be taking over the blog and continue to share season highlights.
 |
| Master Bander and Station Director, Ken Sobon |
 |
| Passing the Baton, Master Bander and retired Station Director Dawn Garcia |
2019, 100 OWLS!!
A lot happened in the 2019 NSWO season. Below are a few highlights of the season. We banded 100 new owls and captured a bird originally banded in British Columbia! We had some cool mammals in the area including our typical bats, a netted flying squirrel and a ringtail (Bassariscus astutus)!
Licensed banders were Project Director Ken Sobon and assistants Wyatt Hersey and Dawn Garcia. Thank you to our returning seasoned bander Julie Newman and volunteers Mary Muchowski, Jessica Shippin and Tanner Hansen and many new volunteers: Charlie Gianini, Jack Geist, Megan Cheny, Leslie Saldavar, Melany Scannell, Anton Dressler, and Asher Perla. WOW, thanks to all!
 |
| Portrait of a saw-whet banded in 2019 |
 |
| NSWO banded at the BCCER since 2005. Blue represents the number of adult owls, red represents the number of young owls (hatched that year). |
 |
| Our 2019 foreign recovery, a three year old originally banded in 2017 in Canada. |
 |
| Ken shows off the owl from Canada, only our 3rd foreign recovery since we opened in 2005. |
 |
| The elusive ringtail, a super cool mammals of the oak woodlands |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)