Great Day & Night!

Today was a Great Day! It started off wet and dreary, but once the first Front pushed through the Hawks came in Droves.The first great sight was our 2nd Golden Eagle of the season, which is now a Season High.
Next came the Red-tails! I don't have the offical numbers ,but there were in excess of 130 observed.This is a Daytime High for the Species.
And we manged to Band 10 RTHA's which is also a 1 Day Station High.
The Red-tails were everywhere, like the Broadwings a month earlier.It was nothing like I had ever seen before,WOW!

This evening we decided to cap off a Great Banding Day with a Good Banding Night! A total of 13
Northern Saw-whets were Banded.This brings the Station total to 88 on site and 66 off site!
Our Hawk totals are 68 on site.

No photos were taken today,but many memorable sights are etched in my mind!

A Roughed Week!

Well it has been over a week since my last post. Things slowed way down due to the unseasonably warm Temps. The southerly winds brought very Strong Gusts and lots of Rain.When it wasn't raining it was Hot and Humid with Fog.That makes it very difficult to See anything yet alone Band them.

WE did however have a couple days where the weather co-operated a little. It brought us our first Rough-legged Hawk of the Season which was also our first Ever Roughie ever Banded at our Station. It was a Light phased Morph of this Species.Unfortunately the Camera was not available for Photos.

Today however I was lucky enough to Catch our 2nd Ever Roughie and had the Camera on hand! It is a Dark Phase of the Species which is not as common as the Light phased. They recieved their name because of the fact that the Feathers cover the entire Leg to the Foot. Other Hawks do not have a Feathered Tarsus(leg). They are very long winged with a longer Tail than other Buteos. Their Feet or Talons are very small aswell compare to the other Hawks in the Class of Buteo .

The Owl Banding is still progressing,but at a slower pace.We are a modest 78 Northern Saw-whets at the Station with an additional 60+ banded at other locations under the Same Permit!

A little Brown Bat came by for a Visit at the Banding Station on last Thursday!

Big Owl Night!

Last night I had my biggest Owl Night ever! It was pretty much a constant from 8pm t 2 am. I finished the night with 20 Northern Saw-whets, with as many as 5 in a Netcheck. I did not have time for many Photos as I like to process them a quickly as possible in order to put as little Stress on them as possible. It also keeps my net checks somewhat regular at 1/2 hr intervals(give or take)

There is something that I have noted during my past couple of Owling nights and that is when there is cloud cover I don't catch many if any Owls. As soon as stars come back out,the Owls seem to find the Nets. It is nothing Scientific yet,but I will continue to monitor this in the Future to see if there is any Basis to it.

The one photo is from last night (all I had time for)when I had 5 NSWO's to process. They are in Bags which are used to carry the Owls from the Nets to the Station for processing. The bags are 100% Cotton and very Breathable.They not only make it easy to carry them,but they remain in the Bags for weighing aswell!The Owls are then fitted with a Leg Band of a size specified by the Bird Banding Office(4 short). They then have their Wing measured from the Wrist to the Tips of the Primary Feathers.This is know as Wing Cord! From the Weight and Wing Cord we can determine their Sex to a degree(nothing is Fool Proof). By examining their Feather Molts we can determine Age. I will try to get Photos under UV Lights to show this part of it. They are then taken outside and Released! For the most part it takes about 7 minutes to process 1 Owl.

Piece of Tails!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the Pics that I referred to in my last post.Note the differance in Tail Patterns on the 4 Juvies! It is remarkable how the plummages can vary as young birds.

Big Day! Great Week!!!

Well it started slow,but ended up an excellant Day. With a light North wind for most of the day the Birds kept on coming.Turkey Vultures and Red-tailed Hawks were the big show, but not the only ones. A total of 257 Raptors were seen and 5 Red-tails were Banded(Pics to be posted soon).Along with the Raptors were 22 Common Loons and 6 Sandhill Cranes.

Last night I banded another 5 Saw-whets which puts me at 51 for the year.This is double last years numbers and a Station High.

Highlight of the Week goes to a sub-Adult Golden Eagle which gave us good looks for 20 minutes,before disappearing out of sight!This is our 2nd ever Golden seen at the Station , the Bald Eagles should start to be seen soon also.

Peregrine Day!(aka Thanksgiving Day)

Well as I have said in the past" The weather is not very codusive for Hawk Migration and Banding". Until now!

A week Cold front pushed through on the weekend which brought a decent flight of Birds on Thanksgiving Day(07/10/08). My Banding partner was at the station and had 3 Peregrine Falcons all of the Tundrius Race came by. Attempts were made to lure them all in ,but only the 2nd reacted and was subsequently Banded. It was a Female HY(Hatch Year) Tundrius Race. This is only the 2nd Peregrine that we have Banded at our Station, but we have only been up and running for 3 Seasons. So I guess we are doing fairly well considering! This did however better our 1 Day total which was 2 last year, and we have now seen 4 on the year which is also a High for us!

Lets not forget the Red-tail and Sharp-shinned that were also banded on Thanksgiving Day.

The weather looks like it is starting to turn for the Better( Colder, and Colder) and will get the Migration back underway. I did manage to Band 6 Saw-whet Owls tonight (07/10/09)

Liam's first Saw-whet!

Tonight I was out Banding again ,although it feels more like a July Night!. I was able to set up Early and play a Screech Call for 1/2 an hour . I retrapped a EASO that was 1 of 2 I caught on Wednesday. These are my first Screech Owls I have ever Banded. To date I have banded 31 Northern Saw-whets and we haven't really had good Owl weather here in Central Ontario.We have surpassed last years numbers and have been going for 2 weeks .Normally we don't start until October 1st week sometime!

Good news is that my youngest Son finally had a chance to release a Saw-whet Owl. Last year everytime He came along we were Skunked .He had been along twice this season with the Same results until tonight!

The Hawk migration and Banding has been extremely slow with only 2 Hawks caught in a week with about 75 Hawks seen in the same week!We are sure the weather will return to more seasonable conditions soon! Hopefully!!!!!!