Weekly Banding Report: October 15-21, 2013

The passerine banding has pretty much ended, except for weekend banding education demonstrations at the main overlook. There will be a summary at the end of the month of the passerine totals. Owl migration continues, but numbers seem lower. This could be related to weather and full moon, which seem to have an effect on capture rate at least at this site.  Migration of large hawks are now picking up and we have had some nice flights.

A total of 83 owls were banded for the week which include: 68 Northern Saw-whet Owl, 13 Long-eared Owl and 2 Barred Owl. The best night occurred on the 19th with an owl program, when 33 owls were banded of three species! We were able to show the nearly 60 participants many Northern Saw-whet Owls, a Long-eared and Barred Owl.
~Annmarie Geniusz, Owl Bander

Highlight this week was the flight on the 21st with strong northwest winds and 31 hawks were banded including 1 Bald Eagle, 4 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Northern Goshawk, 21 Red-tailed Hawks and 2 Rough-legged Hawk. Total hawks banded for the week is 70, which includes: 1 Bald Eagle, 15 Sharp-shinned Hawk, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 16 Northern Goshawk, 34 Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Rough-legged Hawk and 1 American Kestrel.
~Frank Nicoletti, Chris Neri, Nova Mackentley and David Alexander, Banders

I would like to thank the staff and banding assistants this past week.

Frank Nicoletti
Banding Director

Kate Nicoletti holding banded Bald Eagle, image by Miranda Durbin

Hatch-year Bald Eagle, image by Miranda Durbin

Dark (left) and light (right) morph Rough-legged Hawk, image by Miranda Durbin

Owl Bander, Annmarie, measuring Barred Owl, image by Kate Nicoletti

Long-eared Owl, image by Annmarie Geniusz