My Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) fall banding season is apparently over.
After a three week hiatus, I went out last night and caught two, one of
which was a recapture from October 20th.



This has been a huge year for NSWO in terms of productivity, and my highest
year ever in terms of numbers. My closest other NSWO banding station at
Rocky Point, B.C. also had a huge number of NSWO caught, over 500. I banded
68 NSWO between my two stations on Bainbridge Island, and one Barred Owl.
71% of the NSWO were hatch year (HY) birds, birds that were eggs this past
spring. This large percentage of HY birds is unusual. This was also the
first fall that I did not catch a Rocky Point bird.



Not that I particularly desire to add fuel to the iPod conversation,(maybe
the topic ought to be banned, like cats?) but the method used by NSWO
banders is to use an "audio lure", i.e. a continuous playback device, as the
means to attract the birds to the nets. Without the use of the audio lure,
my capture number would approach zero.





J. Acker

Bainbridge Island, WA

<mailto:Owler at sounddsl.com> Owler at sounddsl.com



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Be heard!