Whitefish Point Bird Observatory

SPRING 2007 JOURNALS  ARCHIVE

SPRING 2007 FIELD STAFF
OWL BANDERS
Chris Neri
Nova Mackentley
HAWK COUNTER
Calvin Brennan
WATERBIRD COUNTER
Max Henschell

View daily and monthly WPBO hawk counts and reports
Follow the link, and once in the counts, scroll down for daily totals and reports. You can view monthly totals,  daily counts and daily reports, observational notes and comments. The link is to  the  Hawk Migration Association of North America web site, which is the repository of hawk count data.

View WPBO daily bird counts
Scroll through the table to see the daily counts by species. This data will be updated on approximately a weekly basis.

WPBO Journals Archive

WPBO Spring  2007 Journals

Spring Owl Update 2007 Conclusion, June 1, 2007
      Well, the spring owl banding concluded tonight, and we have some interesting totals and fun numbers for you.

      This spring, we caught 26 owls that were banded at other stations. This is really interesting, because they were from at least 10 different banding stations in the Great Lakes area and one was even from Saskatchewan. We recaptured 5 owls that were banded at WPBO in past seasons, including one owl that was banded here in fall 2001, making it a 6th year bird! Finally, we also recaptured 3 of our summer juvenile Saw-whets that survived the winter. In short, our new audiolure protocol was a great success this spring, and we are very excited to continue this endeavor. WPBO members will receive a more thorough summary of the spring owl banding
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Bird Update, May 31, 2007
      On 5/27 an American Coot was observed at the river mouth. On 5/29 a Western Kingbird and a Purple Martin were sighted at the Point. On 5/30 Calvin Brenan had a Yellow-breasted Chat, all efforts to relocate this bird were unsuccessful. Also on 5/30 Joanie Hubinger, please forgive me for any misspelling of names, found a Prairie Warbler and a Black-billed Cuckoo. Saw-whets have continued migrating through and we banded our 800th owl of the season last night.
    Chris Neri, Owl Bander

Spring Owl Update, May 27, 2007
      We are getting an unexpected late push of saw-whets this week. Since the 16th we have banded 67 saw-whets and 2 long-eareds. It is interesting to notice that the owls have such a long migration period. Tonight we recaptured a saw-whet that was banded here in fall 2004 as an ASY (after second year) bird. This means that it is now at least 6 years old.  
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Bird Update, May 16, 2007
      The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was seen first thing this morning, but was   later reporting seen leaving. Several visits since have been unsuccessful. Skye   Hass found two Wilson's Phalarope at the Tahquamenon River mouth this morning.   We were able to relocate them along with a Short-billed Dowitcher as of  noon. A  Harris' Sparrow was at the feeders at the Point. Migration picked up a  bit at  the Point; American Bittern, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting,   Gray-cheeked Thrush, a handful of warbler species, along with increased numbers   of other typical migrants. Nova and I banded the 650th owl of the season last   night.
    Chris Neri, Owl Bander

Bird Update, May 8, 2007
      The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was seen first thing this morning, but was   later reporting seen leaving. Several visits since have been unsuccessful. Skye   Hass found two Wilson's Phalarope at the Tahquamenon River mouth this morning.   We were able to relocate them along with a Short-billed Dowitcher as of  noon. A  Harris' Sparrow was at the feeders at the Point. Migration picked up a  bit at  the Point; American Bittern, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting,   Gray-cheeked Thrush, a handful of warbler species, along with increased numbers   of other typical migrants. Nova and I banded the 650th owl of the season last   night.
    Chris Neri, Owl Bander

Spring Owl Update, May 3, 2007
      This week has been fairly slow for the owl banding. We are still catching several saw-whets a night, but they have slowed down quite a bit. However, we did see two Great Grey Owls a few nights ago. No sightings since then, which probably means they crossed the lake. Long-eareds are still being consistently spotted from the hawk platform at dusk, and we are occasionally capturing one or two in a night. Spring Fling weekend is over, and wed like to thank everyone who attended and express personal thanks to everyone who pledged to our Birdathon (happening at the end of May), which directly supports the summer owl research. For those of you reading this that want to help support our summer owl research, follow the link from the home page to owls of Whitefish Point and Chippewa County, thanks to all who attended. Lastly, thanks to all who purchased raffle tickets for the print of the Great Gray Owl painting, proceeds of which also directly support our summer owl project. All of the interest, support and enthusiasm expressed towards the owl research during Spring Fling was very rewarding for us. Our research would not be possible without you folks!      
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Spring Owl Update, April 22, 2007
      We just banded our 500th owl tonight! The snow melted off this week, and the owls have started migrating again. We caught a Great Horned Owl and a Barred Owl a few days ago, bringing us to 4 species this season. The Long-eareds are trickling in, and the Saw-whets have been fairly steady every night. We recaptured a banded Long-eared which is very unusual. As of yet, we do not know where it was banded. Our total on encounters (owls banded elsewhere) is now up to 17 birds. The encounters are a very important part of migration research, and we are looking forward to finding out where these birds are coming from. Next week is Spring Fling, and we will be doing an owl presentation (with live owls if available) on Saturday morning at 7:30am. There will also be various other workshops and bird walks. See the link on our website for more information.  
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Spring Owl Update, April 15, 2007
      It looks like the bad weather is finally leaving the area. We have not seen many owls in the past week due to a series of snowstorms up here at the point. However, last night we banded 15 saw-whets, and we hope that this upward trend continues for the rest of the week.  
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Spring Owl Update, April 5, 2007
      We are currently snowed in up here at the point. There has been no owl banding for the last couple of nights due to snow and high winds. However, before this wintery front came through, we were banding quite a few owls. We have now banded a total of 383 owls: 349 Saw-whets and 34 Long-eareds. Previously, the highest spring owl total was 208 birds, which gives us an idea of how much the audiolure is changing the spring banding. Our encounters with previously banded birds have increased to ten Saw-whets, and we recaptured two of the Saw-whets that we banded as juveniles this past summer. We hope to recapture more of our summer birds to increase our understanding of the summer dispersal movement.  Both Barred and Short-eared Owls have also been observed at the Point this season, but we have not banded any species other than Saw-whets and Long-eareds
    Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders

Spring Owl Update, March 28, 2007
     Well, the spring owl banding started off with a bang this year. The spring season now begins on March 15^th, instead of the typical April 1^st, and we now use audiolure (call tapes of  Saw-whet and Boreal). These changes are already giving us a more complete understanding of the spring owl migration. From March 15-28 we have banded 207 owls; 185 Saw-whets and 22 Long-eareds. Since March 15^th we have also captured 7 Saw-whets that were previously banded at sites unaffiliated with WPBO. Two were from Wisconsin, near Stevens Point, the others are not yet known. These encounters are very informative for the owl research community, and give us a sense of how far these owls migrate, and what route they follow. Last night, the Long-eareds finally started moving, and we banded 22 in one night. Tonight we watched at dusk from the parking lot, and counted 10 Long-eareds flying over. This is a great start for the season, and we are really looking forward to April.
   Chris Neri & Nova Mackentley, Owl Banders