"Making and Keeping Memories - Ending Alzheimer's" Silent Auction Winners Meet the Owls!

Our crew met with the silent auction winners for an owl night out, at the "Making and Keeping Memories" Alzheimer's Association Fundraiser hosted by Becky, April and the Book Family Farm in June 2012.  This was a successful and tasty event, with wine and beer/food pairings and music by the Railflowers.

Friday's guests were an interesting group of 6 well-traveled and adventurous ladies (2 having just zip-lined over the forests of Costa Rica!) and they fared well during the coldest night of the banding season so far  -  38*F.  Fortunately we were able to treat our guests with a heater and hot drinks. At sunset we heard a N. Pygmy Owl trilling. In the early night we heard Sandhill Cranes and later Tundra Swans overhead.

Ladies from the Alzheimer's Fundraiser with me and a Saw-whet Owl

Although the night seemed perfect, a cold night following a storm with no moon, the first 3 net runs were empty, other than a rain beetle that we released from the nets. Then came the owls, 4 in total, including this photogenic After Second Year (ASY) male. Our 4th owl broke the season total at 100 owls! We think our guests definitely made, and will keep, the fun memory of meeting the saw-whet owls. Us too! 

ASY Male - photo by Steve King

RESULTS SO FAR, OUR BEST YEAR YET!

We are having a fabulous season for owls!  Last year at this time we were at 77 owls at this date and we are currently at 84. Click here to see 2011/2012 comparisons. Our hatch year to adult ratio is higher this year, indicating a decent reproductive rate in the 2012 season. Here are the latest stats:

10/27 7 NSWO, 2HY/5AHY

10/29 1 NSWO, AHY

11/1   6 NSWO, 2 HY, 4 AHY

11/2   8 NSWO 4 HY, 4 AHY

11/3 10 NSWO 5 HY, 5 AHY

A first year male NSWO. Like other raptors, males
are smaller than females. Photo by Steve King

OWLS OUTREACH TO PEOPLE

Our project is pretty well known in the community after 8 years, and we encourage and make room every season to have people attend field trips and other events to come see the adorable saw-whet.  Scheduling can be tricky with training new volunteers our owl protocol, inclement weather cancellations and banding only 5 nights/week for 5 weeks! This season alone we've great nights with the following groups and events plus several other guests not included in the following:
Donations Events
Candles in the Canyon winners
Snow Goose Festival winners
Alzheimer's Fundraiser
Field Trips
Sacramento Audubon
Owloween
BCCER (2 groups)

The amazement on people's faces is obvious when a saw-whet is extracted gently from the nets or a bag for processing. The saw-whets make good candidates for showing the public due to their mostly mellow nature and tolerance for handling. Often they seem as curious about us as we are them. Check out some of our happy guests!

Sacramento Audubon Group

Guest of
Candles in the Canyon winner

BCCER outing - the owls can be calmed
when gently stroking their forehead

BCCER outing happy guest!

Lucky Owloween Group - Altacal Audubon Society and volunteers 

Early to bed Owloween boys, still got to see
an owl - and adopted her through our Adopt-an-Owl program!

TRACKING GIZMO!" - adventures of raffle winner

On our "Owloween" field trip we had our guests select 4 tickets for our raffle fundraiser winners. The prizes were a choice between a nighttime banding adventure or a daytime tracking excursion.  Winner Rachel Libby  (congratulations Rachel!) chose to trek the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve with MS student Julie Shaw. Together they waded across Big Chico Creek (barefoot!) and climbed steep slopes while scrambling through the brush in search of "GIZMO," our first radioed owl of the season. Julie and I installed a transmitter on Gizmo, a two-year old female, on November 1, 2012. By the next day she had flown across the creek and for days was tucked away in places impossible to get a visual on her.

"Gizmo", tracked to her daytime roost, a Toyon. Photo by Julie Shaw

On Nov 5, Gizmo was found across the creek from green gate, looking great, with her radio and harness in place. You can see her radio antennae in this picture. Click here to see her travel map. Nice work tracking the elusive Saw-whet owl Julie and Rachel!

MEET THE NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL LAST CHANCE FOR OUR RAFFLE ENTRY

Tonight, October 27th,  we will draw 4 lucky winners to meet the Saw-whet, by day or night.  This is a unique adventure and will make a great gift too! See the details about our outings at the September 2012 Post (this blog).  Tickets are 1 for $3.00 or 2 for $5.00 and can be purchased by emailing altacal@conservation.org with the number of tickets you want.  Then, send your check to: Altacal Audubon Society PO Box 3671 Chico, California 95927-3671, and put OWL RAFFLE in the memo line.  Below is an example of whoooooo you might see, by day- or night!

POM (egranate), one of our radio-marked owls,
 tracked to her daytime roost.  She was very interested in our activities!
J. Shaw Photo

We have added a bunch of new owl photos for adoption, including this cutie below.  Adoption certificates make great gifts and help support our program.  Thank you for your support!

Northern Saw-whet Owl, by night, you could see one!

KIDS and OWLS (and banding results Oct 15-19)

We love having parents and their kids come to meet the owls. It's our opportunity to excite them about the night and owls, and science and conservation.  On Friday, we had two very engaging children, one a budding writer and the other on his way to becoming an investigative reporter. We had a great time answering all kinds of questions and laughing-and so did they! 

Happy owlers and their very first saw-whet owl (photo by Shari Brogden)

Our captures have been interesting; a boom and then a decline.  Here are the results from our last 4 banding nights:

Oct 15 - 12 NSWO 8 HY/4 AHY

Oct 17 - 10 NSWO 7 HY/3 AHY
Oct 18 - 4 NSWO  1 HY/3 AHY

Oct 19 - 2 NSWO  2 HY
We have a nice ratio of hatch year birds (61%) to adults (39%), indicating good reproductive success (or very net savvy adults!)

12 Owls and 2 Oddities

Our owl numbers are increasing nicely, it is proving to be a great start to our year.  Here are the last two nights of banding results:
October 13: 3 NSWO 1 HY, 2 AHY (2 hours)
October 15: 12 NSWO!!! 8 HY, 4 AHY (4.5 hours)

Catching owls, particularly in the numbers we do, results in those with some abnormalities. Here are two: a crossed bill which could be very detrimental to hunting, and one white talon, which is likely non-threatening in any way, just different. Steve King took this picture, from the left of the owl. You can see the long mandible.

from the right you see the crossed maxilla. The good news is this bird is at least 2 years old, so has learned to live with the challenge of an abnormal beak. Unfortunately beak abnormalities have increased since the 1990's and based on information found on the web about deformities: "in birds can be caused by many different factors, including environmental contaminants, nutritional deficiencies, and bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic infections"(http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Freakish-Bird-Beaks-Perplex-Experts.aspx.)." Other than our foreign recap from Montana, we have no idea where this bird came from.

Banders  Mike and Raina photographed this bird with one white talon, which is likely non-threatening in any way, just different. Although it does appear to be longer than the black talons.

The more birds we capture, the more we are likely to see some oddities. We always discover something new!