SAW WHET OWLS

Sunday Oct 12, 2008 was a great day for naturing. (but, what day isn't?) We met John Lascowski (the Mothman)at the Carsonville Hotel for a great meal and fun conversation as always. At 6:30 pm we traveled over to the Small Valley Girl Scout Camp to meet with the volunteer owl banding crew from the Ned Smith Center. Mothman brought a supply of ripe pawpaws to share with everyone, they were wonderful. I learned that the pawpaw is a close relative of the papaya, news to me.

A neat surprise was seeing an old friend - Tony (? her last name now) was an employee of mine when I managed White Rose Patient Transfer of 32 years ago. She came to our wedding and we haven't seen each other since. A very nice experience for Flo and I.

The research on the saw whet owl is fascinating - you can read more about it by googleing or on the Ned Smith web site. They use nets and a sound recording as a lure to the nets. The bander thought it was too light and too warm so he expected nothing - we checked the nets every hour from 7 to 12 (We left at 11:30) - at 9 and 11 we caught one - both were previously banded but not in this area the numbers were not familiar to locals - Scott W. will look them up in the national registry to discover their history - they say that to get a previously banded "foreign" owl is the best for research as it has a history to compare with your data - growth distance covered age etc. I hate the word cute for the fact that it is so overused but these little owls are just cute. I am including some of the pics I took there.

The Mothman and his pawpaws

















Owl's wing under black light - color helps determine age

















our friend Tony holding the first owl just before release


















Our first visitor - a female

















the tools to collect and record data


















our second visitor also a female with band # displayed