Hoo dat? A Saw-whet Owl...four actually

An owl says "hoo dat?" as he is caught in the mist net hanging in the dark. "Damn," the owl thinks as he is put in the cloth sack. The owl doesn't know what to think as he is placed upside down in a plastic jar to be weighed. At the end of the ordeal is freedom...and a cool new ID bracelet to show his friends and impress the ladies.

get me outta here

 I first heard about the Cape May, NJ owl banding project in the fall of 2014. I knew that many other types of birds were banded. Song birds are caught in mist nets hung low across clearings. The nets are very fine and almost invisible. Birds are caught randomly as they commute to and from work. No doubt they simply blamed it on "the man" (which is pretty much dead on).

Back in September, my wife told be about a birding feature on Vermont Public Radio that she heard. I missed it live, but was able to find it online. What really caught my attention was the mention of a Saw-whet Owl banding project at the North Branch Nature Center outside of Montpelier, Vermont.

Saw-whet Owls are one of the few (if not only) owls that can be called in so close during their fall migration as to be caught in mist nets. While I have no experience in banding birds, I was hoping I could attend an evening session and watch.

I found information about the North Branch Nature Center online and sent an e-mail to Chip Darmstadt, Executive Director for the Nature Center. Chip was great at getting back to me. Unfortunately, I wasn't available for any of the October banding dates.

a Saw-whet accepts its fate

I contacted Chip on November 2 to see if there would be any more attempts at banding this year. He said that they might have one or two nights left and that night looked pretty good for banding. He told me to arrive at the Nature Center about 5:45 and we'd check the nets at 6. Chip was very clear that it was late in the season and we might not see anything. I was excited to have the opportunity to go, even though there was no guarantee of seeing an owl. Clearly, based on the attached pictures, I was able to see some owls. It was a life bird for me, meaning a bird I had never seen.

I arrived at the Nature Center before 6 PM and found where the banders were located. There were about 3 banders and several parents with their kids. The plan was to check the nets about every half hour, beginning at 6.

I have seen song bird banding before and found it interesting at how calm the birds are. After they are caught, the birds are placed in paper lunch bags and left on the ground until it is time for the bagged-bird to be banded. The birds settled down when placed in the dark bags. It is the same principle as covering a bird cage or putting a hood on birds of prey used in falconry...or placing a pillow over a snoring husband's face. So I'm told.

The whole owl banding project was fascinating, from catching the birds in the net; to getting the birds out of the net; to bagging and unbagging the birds; and to banding, measuring, weighing, sexing (not sexting), and aging the birds. Even releasing the birds was interesting. (I've tried to capture some of the activities in the embedded video to the left.)

After the birds were tagged and its vitals recorded, the bander would place the owl on a lucky child's outstretched arm. Interestingly, the little Saw-whet Owls didn't fly off right away. They would sit for a half minute or so, then fly off - looking like a large moth flying off in the beams of the flashlights. Sadly, they only picked the cute little kids to release the owls. I have found that people never pick the cute middle-aged men for the really cool things. Maybe they hope these small opportunities will spark something in the children that could alter the course of their lives and maybe they won't grow up to become attorneys or accountants. Just the same, it may limit the hope of these same attorneys and accountants of becoming kids again. Just saying.

Along with banding, sexing, and weighing the owls, the banders needed to determine the age of the birds. This they do by stretching out the birds wing and shining a black light on the underside of the wing. New feathers glow bright pink. The last owl caught was a first-year bird. You could tell because all the feathers glowed pink. Other birds only had a couple pink feathers. These were determined to be second or third year birds (I can't recall which).

It was really a great night. We caught four owls - one owl the second net check at 6:30, two owls just after 7:00, and one owl around 8:00. I thank Chip Darmstadt for always replying so promptly to my inquiries and for being so welcoming to everyone who showed up to watch the banding. He is an enthusiastic steward of nature. What a wonderful treat it is for a desk-bound professional to get out, even for one night, to witness the wonders of the wild things.

There's no doubting Thomas...the "birding death match" continues

Black Skimmer at Milford Point, CT

Back on December 17, 2014, I published a post about a "big year" birding contest several friends and I started amongst ourselves. The idea was to get off our butts, get outside, have some fun, and maybe learn a thing or two.

Keeping in the spirit of any guy undertaking, Jim and Tom immediately went out and bought new binoculars. No doubt the new "bins" will be crucial in securing a win. Perhaps not.

We are over 11 months into our "Big Year birding death match." Currently I'm in second place. This wouldn't be too bad if there were more than three people in our contest. (Let the record show that I was in the lead briefly after a three-day birding weekend in Cape May, NJ - attending a Observatory-sponsored event.)

Jim spends a lot more time outdoors than either Tom or me, but he is busy operating earth-moving equipment. If was really good at his job he could keep one eye free to identify birds while excavating.

I'm at 162 different species since January 1. Tom, the current leader, has over 170 birds, with all but a few from Connecticut. The majority of my birds are from Virginia, followed by New York (Central Park), Vermont, New Jersey, and California.

Of course my first reaction to Tom's lead was that Tom was seeing things, had poor eyesight, was hallucinating, possibly had too many drinks. Sadly, I've come to realize that Tom is actually kicking my butt the old-fashioned way. He's spending the time outside and actually hunting down these little feathered dinosaurs. (These posted pictures are only a couple of the hundreds Tom has taken this year.)

Another bird

Some would think that I might be upset at the prospect of losing my own contest. On the contrary. I'm quite comfortable losing my own contests - Exhibit A would be our annual Thanksgiving archery contest (complete with trophy) that I started. I haven't won it in over three years.  I am getting somewhat smarter though. I'm having Tom locate his trophy, rather than me buying it only to award it to him.

We hope to cap this year's contest with a dinner where we can swap birding stories and bore our wives. Tom did tell me a good story of him stocking an owl to add to his list.  Tom has never seen an owl in the wild, so he was pretty excited to see one on the far side of a marsh. He started picking his way through the reeds and muck. When he finally got close enough to get a good look through his binoculars he was able to identify it as a plastic owl! Hey, plastic owls fool pest birds, why not Tom?

It has been a great year so far. I have spent more time hunting birds to spot than I have ever spent hunting game - probably because the birding season lasts all year. I have birded at home, on a business trip in San Francisco, while visiting my daughter in New York City, while hiking in Virginia, and on birding trips to Cape May, NJ. Some days I only get out for a couple hours.  Other days, I'm out all day.

What I've learned so far is that I know the birds that come to our feeder really well. So that accounts for about 10 species of birds.  Most of the other 151 birds were new to me.  "Lifers" as it were. Many of these I was looking for by going where they were regularly seen.  Other birds I had to look up in the field.  Many of these were missed. They simply refused to pose for me long enough.

Tom did share one of his birding secrets - he outsourced to the internet. He posts pictures he's taken of birds that he can't identify or is looking for identity confirmation on the Facebook group "What's this bird." Some people post some amazing pictures. I can even identify some of them.

The contest continues through the end of the month...then it starts again, and again, and again.  Contact me if you are interested in participating in the 2016 contest.