Still Plugging Away

WE continue to plug away at the Owl and Hawk Banding at Innisfree Raptor Station. Weather has been a big factor with High Winds and Rain making it impossible to get out and do anything. We have had our first bit of Snow, thankfully it hasn't decided to stay yet! The weather is shaping up to be an almost Mirror Image of last year, and if that is the case we will only get another couple of weeks in.

Owls are still being caught but at a lesser or maybe a more managable rate. We are sitting at just under 200 Saw-whets and Banded our first Long-eared Owl last Saturday. Photos of this Bird will be posted as soon as I recieve them!

Some of the Stations furter North have closed for the Season, but we will continue on.


Hawks have been disappointing this Season , especially in comparison to last Season! We have just now managed to break the 20 Bird barrier with the help of Nigels 5 caught yesterday. Hawk numbers are down significantly in "Count Numbers" at most of the other Hawkwatch sites also, so we do not feel as bad . The first Northern Goshawk (in 2 years)was Banded yesterday along with 4 Juvie Red-tails. Unfortunately no Photos are available for those.

We'll try to keep this updated as time permits!

Owls good, Hawks poor!

Saw-whets continue to move through our location in good numbers. On Saturday a new Station High and personal Best for Masterbander Nigel Shaw saw 21 Owls Banded. That beat our previous Station high of 20 last season by me and beat Nigels previous best one night of 19. On the Sunday I banded another 18 Owls. We have had a better than last year Season sofar, as other Stations report fewer Birds. Our total is around 160 Owls which is atleast 50 Owls more than this time last Season!

Hawks continue to move through at a slower than normal pace and we are at less than 20 Hawks sofar this Fall. This is atleast 20 Hawks less than last Season at this time! Most of our Hawks have been Red-tails and surprisingly they are mostly Adults that are being caught. This seems to Help our theory that Hawks did not have a great Breeding Season and we suspect it is primarily due to the Wet and Cooler Summer.

Saw-whets moving well!

We started Banding for Saw-whets on September 26th this year. It started off rather slowly with 1 or 2 Owls a night until the 29th we caught 6 Saw-whets and 1 Screech Owl. This included a Foreign Retrap that was Banded somewhere else in Ontario on October 10th 2007. On Sept 30th 1 Saw-whet was netted .
On Friday and Saturday Nights I was doing a Banding Demonstration at the WYE Marsh in Midland Ontario. It is 85 km's north of our Banding Station. It was poor Owl wise with only 1 Bird on the last night, and this was only after the Guests had departed .
Subsequently my Banding Partner was at the Station and netted a few on Friday and 20 on Saturday, which included 2 Foreign Retraps. One was banded elsewhere in Ontario and the Other from Assateague Island ,Worcester CO. Maryland. It was banded Oct. 30 2007 by David Brinker , who spearheads Project Owlnet that many of us particpate in!
On Sunday I caught 14 more unbanded Saw-whets and Monday another 18 , which one is a Foreign Retrap of unknown Origin as of yet. Last night we caugt 8 more and our Total is 75 on the Season , which is 30 Birds higher than this time last year!
This is supposed to be a poor year campared to last year, as most other Stations are reporting, but we are actually seeing it busier! GO FIGURE!

We will carry on as we can(tonight is raining) and hopefully will have some Pics to post.

Back Again!!!!!

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything. I was without a computor most of the Summer and I guess I am not really cut out to be a Big Time Blogger!

Anyhow, we are Banding again this Fall although the Migration of all Birds of Prey appear smaller this year. Weather may have played havoc on the Nesting and food supply of many of the Raptors. Northern Saw-whet Owls are moving through but nowhere near last years numbers, which is right in line with the 4-5 year Trend of thier Populations. They seem to crash heavily after a great year. This year we are catching more Foreign Birds than Hatch Year Birds (3 Foreign to 2 Hatch Year) out of 30 Saw-whets to date.

I banded my first ever Peregrine Falcon on the 23rd of September. We have now caught a Peregrine 3 of 4 years since we opened the Banding Station. Other birds banded to date are 4Red-tailed Hawks,2 Merlins , 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 1 Coopers Hawk.

We had our largest count Day on Septmber 16th with a total of 1671 Birds of Prey counted.In this total were 1568 Broad-winged Hawks. It a day I will soon not forget!

Our Osprey Platform was a Huge success ,and the pair was able to raise 3 chicks and have them Fledge! We banded the young Osprey on July 09. I was the charged with the Task of climbing the pole and lowering the Chicks one at a time to be Banded. One of the Adults keep a close Eye on me and made many Swooping Dives about 10 feet above my Head.

Untill next time !