Just a brief update on the Northern Saw-whet migration through western
Virginia. This is my fourth year of banding saw-whets in western
Virginia. We are off to our best start ever in regards to numbers of
birds. In the seven partial nights that we have been open, I have banded
99 new saw-whets, and have had four significant recaptures. Last night I
caught the first saw-whet that I had banded. I recaptured an owl that had
been here last year. We have also recaptured birds banded in Ontario,
Maine, and Pennsylvania. As usual females predominate (I think that we
have had only one "definitive" male so far) and there seems to be a very
high percentage of older birds (non-hatch-year birds) ... although I don't
have a percentage calculated at this point. I think that this will be our
best year but it could be that the peak has simply moved to an earlier
time period. We shall see.
Clair Mellinger
--
Biology Department
Eastern Mennonite University
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
540 432-4409
mellinac@xxxxxxx
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