Bard

Usually you can expect Fud to accurately predict the general flow of the hawk and owl migrations solely on the weather forecast, but this year has been different when it comes to owls. On a normal year this warm weather would keep the owl movements down and over the past week we would only have been catching 10 or so a night. Over the past three nights we have caught around 180 and Fud is no longer making guess at what the flow of a coming night might be. Even Fud is a bit nervous about what a "good" night is going to bring us.

Two nights ago we discovered that there was a barred owl in the area. Three things indicated this to us: a mass of leaves in a net where the owl hit and sagged to the ground, picking up leaves before escaping; a huge hole in the net where the barred busted through; and a bloody saw whet (which ended up only having superficial wounds). Last night I was walking along doing a net run and hear the bushes moving around so I charged the trees scaring the huge owl into an adjacent net. Luckily I was able to close the net around the owl quickly enough as it was on its way out and will likely be the only one of its kind caught this year.

Size comparison




Red eyes all around


Angry saw whets