A NSWO BAND RECOVERY- A FIRST FOR THE BCCER!

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.

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.

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

Map of active NSWO banding stations (red dots) in 2010

FOREIGN RECOVERY NSWO #2!

Last night, during our Owl Night Out donation for the Fight Against Alzheimer's -we had an amazing surprise, a Foreign Recovery of a NSWO.

 

Fighting to end Alzheimer's -
Our very fun and birding savvy group!

Bander/volunteer Michelle Ocken just before releasing Miss
Iowa!  Michelle's smile shows our group's excitement.

This means we recaptured an owl originally banded elsewhere, only the second time for us since 2005 and over 500 owl banding/captures. Our excitement was high when after looking through our data, we soon discovered she was not one of "our birds."  Her band number did not match any of the band strings. By examining her molt pattern we identified her as a Second Year (SY) female, meaning she was hatched last year in 2012. When I got home I input her band information into the Bird Banding Laboratory - Report a Bird - page and here is what I found this morning in my inbox: 

Banding Location: Hitchcock Nature Center, NR Honey Creek, Pottawatomie County, IOWA!  She was banded Nov. 2012 as a Hatch Year/Female. 

Project Owlnet Map of all NSWO banding stations across 

North America. I  circled our banding station at BCCER in blue 

and the banding station where Miss Iowa was first banded.

What a trip - Literally! While we don't know what her journey looks like, but here is a likely scenario. We know she was banded in Iowa, fall 2012. She likely flew north in the spring and bred somewhere in Canada (?) in 2013. This fall she flew to us.  The mystery lies in the in between route from station to station-and one that will always remain a mystery. 

NSWO are AMAZING!  

Google Earth image showing two banding locations and
terrain in between sites

Our Foreign Recovery - A Montana Girl!

My previous post tells about Lola, a foreign recovery of unknown origin. It turns out after we queried our way through the western states, we found that she was originally banded in the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana (!) by researchers at the Owl Research Institute. Her original band date was September 28, 2011,where she weighed in at 93.0 grams. On November 2, 2011 at our banding site OWL2, she was 91 grams. This two year old lady did some traveling; approximately 600 miles in 35 days. Check out this map of her approximate original banding location to our site.

Wouldn't it be great to know where she stopped in between, and where she was hatched-she could be Canadian! We still are not sure if she was banded during a migration monitoring effort (but likely since it was late September) or for some other research project. More to come - stay tuned!!!