Timiskaming Birds Forum

We were fortunate last night to have bnader Kevin picard out and he banded 11 owls boreals last night. Well done kevin I cannot help but wonder how many we would catch if we had all three sites going. I tried at gilles last night and caught nothing so obviously site b is the right habitat. We do have a major problem though we only have 2 bands left  I ordered more today so we may not be able to band any more owls. i never anticipated that we would be catching this many. I would remind readers that 11 was our past record for a season with the sawwhet tape and last night was once again with a boreal call.

11 more boreals were caught over the last 2 nights 3 on the 5th and 8 last night with the help of Mike Werner and Cale McKeever.  Still in a tizzy about the amount of boreals that are in the area and how we have no idea of how many we could have potentailly have banded this year. Especially if we had our full operation going right now and if we had of been banding boreals all season. It is good to see that the potential is here and we will be ready for the next big movement.

 Hey, Gavin Murphy Here, up and coming terra student for 09. Pretty awesome with all the boreals. Thinking that we should be doing the same thing for the eastern screech owl, using their calls to start banding them, any thought on that?

Hi Gavin. Welcome to the forums! Good to have you along.

Regarding Screech Owls, I think we're kind of at the northern limit of the normal range for Screech Owls.  We do get them here, but not in numbers, and unlike the other small owls, they would not be moving through Timiskaming during migrations or irruptions from the north, because there aren't any that much further north.  You will notice on our checklist that the Screech Owl is a listed species for northern Ontario by the OBRC, which speaks to its low abundance in our area.  It would certainly be interesting to give it a try to see what kinds of numbers we might get, but I wouldn't expect much. Who knows though, we might be surprised.  I think the best time to try for that species would probably be mid to late summer rather than the fall. Whatever Screech owls we do have around likely vacate Timiskaming much earlier than the other small owls.

HI gavin welcome on board keep an eye out for snowy owls and hawk owls I have laways wanted to try banding some of those and peopel are predicting they will be moving south this year. There are already reports of both down south already even as far as Toronto. Have an eye to the sky

Will do, definitely! So far it has only been the one or two rough legged hawks that come and sit on a fence post across the road from our driveway. I would definitely like to see the snowy and the hawk owl, we have had one or two randomly through past winters and stay round our house. One stayed during a blizzard and sat on the antenna of dads garage, about 50ft up and not very far from the house. Never seen a Northern Hawk Owl, but its on my most wanted list.

 Cool, glad to be on this site. We should at least see wether we could get any of the eastern screech owls, have to remember that for when the time comes around.