Owl Banding

 Last night I was very fortunate to go to an owl banding. My friend Barbara Seith won an auction to attend an Audubon Society of RI owl banding and a dinner at a wildlife sanctuary normally off limits to the public. She was allowed to include seven other guests. Somehow, I was very fortunate to make the cut. 

   The dinner started at 6:30 but before we ate we checked the nets. The plan if all went well, was to have migrating Saw Whet Owls fly into nets as they migrate south. They are taken out of the nets, measured, banded, and sexed. After a couple of minutes they are released back into the wild. Of course, the purpose of all of this is scientific study and to track their movements. 

   The dinner was delicious consisting of salad, rolls, pasta, and chicken marsala. However, as you can imagine, the hope of all of us was to see an owl up close. The leader, Ornithologist, URI professor Peter Paton was in charge of the banding. I could tell that he was hoping to see an owl. As in one. One owl would be a successful night. He seemed as though chances were better of a getting shut out.

   Every half hour we would take a walk to the nets. Luckily, in one of our very first trips we had a Saw Whet. He untangled it and brought it in to be measured, weighed, and banded. As you can imagine all of us birders were just giddy to be looking at this adorable little owl. 

   I learned so much last night. First, most of the owls caught in RI are yearlings. The more experienced ones migrate further inland away from the cost. Also, most of them are females, over 90%. Many of the males stay on their breeding grounds in northern New England and Canada. However, the further inland you go, the higher the percentage of males. As with many birds of prey, the females are bigger. 

  My favorite fact of the night was that Saw Whets do not necessarily  south in a straight line from N-S. Many of them will fly from west of Lake Superior towards New England and may even winter here. The map of where banded birds were recaptured looked like it had a pound of uncooked spaghetti dropped on it. The lines were all over the place. There was no specific flyway or route. 

 

Northern Saw Whet Owls are tiny as you can 
see by this photo

 Unbelievably the nets caught five Saw Whet Owls. All of them, following statistics, were females, though not all were first year birds. Four of the five birds were very calm. One of them was very angry. It kept biting and clawing at Peter. When it comes to owls, the talons are worse than the beak. That owl got its talon into Professor Paton and drew blood. 

   The other four birds were calm. Even after being released, three of them just flew into the nearest tree and perched for a few minutes. We all took photos of the scientific work and had the owls pose near our shoulder. When they were being released Peter put them on our arm and let it fly off. I volunteered for one of the owls. It sat on my arm for five seconds before flying up to a tree. What a feeling!

   The dinner concluded with excellent slide show by Peter. This is actually where I learned most of the stuff. Another example of interesting info, Saw Whets eat mostly mice and voles, but will add insects and birds to their diet. He had some fantastic photos of hunting Saw Whets and babies in nests (they are cavity nesters like wood ducks). Though as he said, the photos weren't his. He had multiple charts with data that truthfully mesmerized me. 

 

Peter Paton taking measurements

Obviously, I had a great night. I am friends with all but one of the participants and she was also very nice. I got to see science up close along with five owls. I got to carry one of the owls to be weighed and had one fly off of my arm. I got to do something the majority of people including birders can never do. The food was awesome. I learned a ton of new facts. Many of my friends were also there. One last thank you to Barbara for bidding on the owl banding and inviting me. All of us are very grateful.

Oh ya, we also heard a pair of resident Barred Owls and coyotes!!