Timiskaming Birds Forum

Greetings all. I think we have a new research project for the marsh. how many boreal owls do we have??? Using a saw whet owl tape we mangaed to catch 7 boreal owls this year. I have used a boreal owl tape thanks to a track provided by local bander johnathan Frechette and caught 2 boreals last friday then i caught 6 last night. Each night I only banded until midnight. last night I had three in one net, it was incredible. The enitre expereince has me shaking my head wondering how many boreal owls we have in the area. One of the issues is that i was afraid to play a boreal tape and compromise our sawwhet numbers but I am thinking we have established that sawwhets are in our area in good numbers but how about boreals. While we are on the four year cycle one would expect to catch some but how about other years? Johnathan would know more about this with his knowledge of the Tadoussac bird observatory but I was in communication with the folks at Whitefish point and they claim you can run a boreal site 300 yards away from a sawhet site which may make site b and the north end ideal spots to attrempt with the boreal tape. I had taken the nets down at the shed and the north end so all of these boreal have been caught at site b. I have tried at home 2 nights without any luck so far. I welcome any ideas regarding this project but I am really excited about the potential for doing research on boreals in the future. If the weather works out i think I will try again this Friday at the marsh to see if we can catch any more. just to recap these are our numbers for boreal owls we have only caught them in 4 year intervals. 2000  1,  2004 11, 2008  15.  ( 7 with sawwhet tape  over 6 weeks 8 with a boreal owl tape in 2 nights) looking forward to your thoughts. Murph

Certainly sounds like its worth a try.  Does anyone know the prime migration timing for Boreals?  Is it possible that you caught so many Boreals with the Boreal Owl tape because of timing and not because of the species in the recording?  If so, would it be possible to maximize banding opportunities for both species by preferentially trying for each species sequentially at all three sites (like you did this year at Site B) rather than simultaneously at separate sites?  If nobody knows the answers to these questions yet, then it sounds like fertile ground for some research that will to add to our collective knowledge base for these birds.  Go for it!

Good points mike we caught our first boreal owl  in sept 20th and I am unsure when the migration occurs and whether we have boreal owls throughout the range or if this is just an irruption tied to the mouse shortage in the north as has been suggested. I guess we will not know until next year when we try with a boreal tape. I am currently thinking of adding a dedicated boreal site a couple of km away from site b and trying a boreal tape about three hundred yards away from the north end owl nets as suggested by whitefish point. I am concerned about over taxing ourselves while we are banding sawwhets. I am going to try for more boreals hopefully Friday and even perhaps this wednesday. I still have not been able to catch a boreal at home even though I have nets set up in what I would have thought would be suitable habitat. The other night i lost a net to a flying squirrel that chewed through the trammels and my fingers as i was getting it out of the net. We are now at 15 boreals and Jonathan frechette has 9 in Ville marie where he has been trying a boreal tape as well. I am not certain if all of those were produced by the boreal tape or not. Lots of questions not many answers. I think Johnatahn will shed more light on this when he adds his knowledge of what the expereince at tadoussac has been. All in know is that i am intrigued and past volunteers have pressured me to not give up on our sawwhet numbers but i am leaning to put more effort on boreal research even though the chances of retraps or foreign owl encounters are remote.

If you go out for Boreals Wednesday, let me know. I'd like to join you.  Maybe on Friday, too.