4 October 2024

This is Juliana Ramirez – last year and this year’s Resident Bander – reporting in and returning to see what this season holds. So far, 2023 and 2024 are looking to be completely different seasons. Only one week in, and we’ve already got more than 1/3rd of the owls that we caught last season! We’re starting up weekly blog posts this year, so I’ll be updating you as we go along.

Dave Brinker and I arrived in the middle of last week and spent some time prepping the station, unpacking gear, trimming the net lanes, setting up nets, and working out the little bits and bobs that are needed to get the site up and running. We had our first official night on Friday the 27th, and found ourselves in luck. We got 11 saw-whets on the very first night thanks to west and north winds! Ben Becker, who previously worked a season with Northern Saw-whet Owls in Wisconsin, joined in to help out over the weekend. Weather continued to be decent into Tuesday – enough for us to reach a total of 50 saw-whets – and just in time for the Fabers to arrive! Coco Faber and Tracey Faber will be working as the station’s Research Assistants for this season, which will be a welcome addition as this year is predicted to be a big one. Their first night brought in 16 owls, which helped a good deal with training and showing them how we extract, process, scribe, etc. We’re all collectively gaining our confidence and mentally prepping ourselves for big nights ahead, and it feels great to have the crew all together at last! So far it’s been mostly HYs (hatch-years) and females, but otherwise we’ve had 8 SYs (second-years), 2 AHYs (after-hatch years), and 3 ASYs (after-second years), with only 3 males and 9 “unknowns” (unable to be identified as male or female) in the mix. As of Friday night, we are up to 67 saw-whet owls! 

The nights have been very quiet since Tuesday thanks to south winds and cloudy skies. We caught 1 bird on Wednesday, none Thursday (despite nets being open), and with the weather looking the same on Friday, we took that night off. Looking ahead, this weekend is looking more promising. In the meantime, we’ve all been enjoying the porcupines, woodcocks, deer, and sunsets that this beautiful field site and location have to offer. Many thanks to everyone who’s been supporting the project in any way – we wouldn’t be able to be out here doing this important work without all of your help! Looking forward to more owls and updating you as the season continues. 

Happy fall and happy owls, 

Juliana