Hallo

Things are still slow for me at night, feeling lucky to catch 15 Saw-whets and a Long-eared. The winds look favorable in the next few days, so we're hoping for a push of birds. Mostly I'm waiting for more Boreals or a Great-horned to show up for us to try to catch.

BOOW

On only second night of running the Boreal Owl caller we caught one!  This was my first ever seen or banded, so it was great bird for me, especially catching it at 4am after a fairly slow night of Saw-whets.

Kind of a bigger, evil brother of the Saw-whet










Chunky bird with big furry legs, taking the same band size as a Long-eared Owl, though only weighing about half as much.

Gos release

Ok night of owl banding, with 32 Saw-whets, 5 LEOW and 1 Barred.  Probably the coldest night so far, possible getting down into the high teens.

Goshawk release

CORA

It looks like tonight I will finally get a chance at some owls after four nights of rain and/or wind. The daylight hours have also been filled with some pretty miserable weather, but today I got out to the main blind for most of the day and got to see a good number of birds. Though the five Goshawks and the Red-tail were great, the highlight of the day was the Common Raven that I caught on the main bownet. We've been seeing a lot of crows and ravens moving through the area in the past few weeks, but very rarely do we catch them.  They're smart birds and are just usually not that interested in taking on a pigeon, starling or dove for a meal. But this one was feeling gutsy, and went for it!

A beautiful bird with a massive, strong bill, great for tearing at flesh, whether it be mine, or a dead deer.
The single photo in which I am not being chomped on.

...

Running low

Thick Fog

Wind last night, rain tonight.

A LEOW with a few white talons.

Debate!

Great night with Caitlin last night, 59 Swets, 8 LEOW and 1 Barred, with a three species net run!


Nice little deformity here

Caitlin's here!

Choppers

Helicoptering away

Green and Yellow

I had 18 Saw-whets last night despite the iffy weather, though I don't think I'll be opening at all tonight. The bird on the right is the palest I've seen so far.
And the one on the left here has much more of a green tint to its eyes than the usual bright yellow.

:(

The weather is not looking good for the next couple of nights, but I'm going to try anyway! Adult Barred owl, with a block of retained feathers in the middle.

LEOWS

It's all about the Long-eared Owls now.  Though we did end up with 154 Saw-whets two nights ago, they are going to be winding down in the next couple of weeks, but the LEOWs will be more abundant as hinted at by our 40 captured two nights ago.  Though that night did not top our biggest night of owls this fall, handling and processing that many bigger owls certainly made it feel like more birds.