Raptor Report

Few More Owls

2012-01-22T22:13:00.000-06:00

Jan.22/12

Went out today to see if there were any new Owls around, did a tour through my northern route to search for Great Grays and Hawkowls, I couldn't find any Great Grays, they seem to be extremely scarce this winter. I did find this juvy Northern Shrike.

Found a Northern Hawk Owl close to Peace River, turned out to be a SY bird with an unusual old wing injury.

Close up

Most of the Snowy Owls have moved out of Peace Region, my guess is maybe to Grande Prairie area or even further south, totals now are 36 SNOW's banded and 4 retraps of my own birds. Here's a couple of new ones.

An ASY Male SNOW

An SY female

This has been an incredible winter, lets hope it continues!

2012 Year of the Snowy Owl

2012-01-03T12:23:00.000-06:00

Jan.3rd 2012

Since last post i've been able to capture and band alot more Snowy Owls around Peace Country. Totals to date are 28 newly banded Snowies and 3 retraps from birds I banded a few weeks ago. I caught a HY(hatch year Male) from Dec.18 which is now a SY(second year) bird with the turning of the calendar year, it was retrapped 17 kms further south so these owls are still on the move if they haven't found a decent spot to maintain territory which is typical with young male Snowy Owls. The other was one I caught yesterday which was retrapped 2 kms east of its original banding location and after I investigated its old site I could clearly tell why, there were 2 large females hunting his old territory so they kicked him out which is also typical with females being more aggressive for territory.

HY Male

Here is a large female where he was banded back in December.

The majority of Snowies that have been banded have been HY females, here is one from a couple of weeks ago.

Most of these owls are in decent condition but I have come across 2 that I was concerned about. I have been feeding them voles that I have trapped just to give them some some needed energy.

I'm hoping to band as many Snowies as possible before they depart Peace Region in March or April so that next winter i'll hear about one of these owls turning up somewhere else in the country or if I get lucky and retrap one of my own birds to determine whether or not they do come back to this place.

Snowy Madness

2011-12-05T12:43:00.001-06:00

Dec.4th 2011

With having my weekends off and reports of Snowy Owls around Peace River i've been lucky enough to head out and catch 6 Snowy Owls so far. I received word from the local Fish & Wildlife Dept that there were a couple snowies hanging around the bridge. I was fortunate to catch 2 of them, one being an adult female and she was the most miserable owl thats i've ever handled. The other was a hatch year male that was on the light side but with the amount of voles and mice around the bridge shouldn't have much trouble catching food, my only concern was that one if not both of these owls will become roadkill. Only time will tell.

I went looking around last week and found this massive adult female and she came in within 2 mins, usually I would have to wait anywhere from 20mins to 2 hrs before they come in. This bird was a healthy 2100 grms!

Yesterday evening I was out looking around because as many people know with the amount of Ravens around these Snowies won't sit up high to hunt until it gets almost dark so they aren't harassed, I found two young snowies and caught both, these birds are showing up hungry but not in that bad of shape as everyone is predicting.

I hope my luck continues, this is so far my best Snowy Owl capture season since 2005.

First Alberta Fall

2011-11-14T14:35:00.000-06:00

Nov.14th 2011

Raptors have been plentiful this fall around Peace River. I have officially moved up here from Saskatoon and getting out to band birds is alot more difficult with a full-time job.

Rough-legged Hawks have been coming through in October and some days I counted 10-20 birds hunting in the same field! They were extremely hard to trap this fall i'm speculating because of the amount of mice and voles in the field but whenever I tried to trap one they would ignore my efforts. I was lucky enough to trap a dark RLHA back at the end of October. I'm guessing it came in as fast as it did because it was starving, it was an adult male and it was very thin weighing in at 820 grms!

There were a number of Harlan's Hawks coming through and I was able to catch an adult male. I had a number of juvy Harlan's stuck on my trap but wasn't able to secure them and they flew away.

Here is a picture of a Northern Hawk Owl that I banded a couple of days ago.

I was out looking for Snowy Owls south of Peace River yesterday. I've only come across 2 SNOW's and haven't been able to catch any but I did manage to catch 2 more Rough-legged Hawks. Here's one of them. A nice HY female but a little on the thin side at 928 grms.

Boreal Surprise

2011-09-16T10:28:00.001-06:00

Sept.15th 2011

I have been patiently waiting for my Alberta banding permit to arrive and it did this week, so I headed out NW of Manning close to where our tanker base is. I drove along a gravel road, past a sign saying "Your in Grizzly Country" and thought to myself O God please keep me safe. A few of my co-workers wanted to see how I go about trapping owls. We found a great spot in prime Boreal Forest, mostly in White Spruce mixed with some Trembling Aspen.

First net check we found this SY (Second Year) Northern Saw-whet Owl in the net.

After taking all her measurements and a couple quick photos she was released. We could hear a couple owls calling close to the net so after 20 mins we went back to check the net and this HY (Hatch Year) Boreal Owl was in the net.

After the Boreal was released it began to rain so we closed up for the night. What a fantastic first night!

Mike Blom
Peace River, AB

Fall Migration Begins

2011-09-02T17:54:00.001-06:00

Sept 1st 2011

Had a few days off for my younger sister's wedding so Michelle and I left Peace River headed for Saskatoon. I checked out Hawk Ridge banding site in Duluth Minnesota and they had an impressive 400+ Sharp-shinned Hawks fly through there site yesterday.

I was hoping for some birds to start coming through Petrofka Raptor Station and was not dissapointed! In 2 days of trapping migrating raptors I caught 5 birds! I know this isn't alot for people along the great lakes where trapping 100 sharpies in a single day isn't unheard of, but here in the prairies its not a bad couple of days. I caught 2 Hatch year American Kestrels and a Hatch year Sharpie.

HY SSHA

Today began nicely when this Merlin came out of nowhere and buried itself in the net.

Not even an hour later and this HY SSHA was caught, didn't even see it come in. Too bad I didn't have a station setup along the Peace River, last week I had an adult Peregrine Falcon fly over!

Hatch year Sharp-shinned Hawk

Turkey Vulture Tagging Time!

2011-08-23T12:56:00.001-06:00

Aug.4-5th 2011

The time arrived to begin our Vulture tagging season, It comes up quick every year! As soon as I arrived back in Saskatoon I got our gear in order and we set out to tag Vultures in the West and NW part of Saskatchewan. Brent Terry and I travelled to 6 nests around North Battleford and tagged 11 young the first day. Here are pictures from a couple of those nests.

Two young TUVU posing with wings outstretched and sporting new wing tags

One of our stops included this house along a giant slough, new nest site for 2011 season but the house had been used for a few years. Its with help from local landowners that nest sites are found and young Vultures get tagged.

This is our 9th year that Dr.Houston's project has been running. Already with this project we have proven that Turkey Vultures begin breeding at 4 years of age, adult Vultures have helpers that bring food to young and that our Saskatchewan Vultures winter as far as southern Columbia and Venezuela.

TUVU nestling from Glaslyn Barn

So far a total of 144 Turkey Vultures were tagged this August with a handful of nests left to do. This beats last year total and so far has been our best season. Many thanks to everyone involved and especially to farmers who give us access to their land and call in Vulture sightings.

Banding A' Plenty!!!

2011-06-19T18:46:00.000-06:00

June.19th 2010

This summer has been a record for Kestrel nests. In 10 of the Kestrel boxes i've checked 8 contained young and 2 contained eggs. I banded a total of 42 Kestrels this past Wednesday. 41 of them were young and a single female sitting on young that had just hatched. I have a few left to check but so far this is by far the best year for Saskatchewan's smallest falcon.

My sister and my neices helping out with Kestrel banding

I received word that there were high numbers of Long-eared owls nesting this year in the Saskatoon area. We went out to a few nests and banded a total of 9 young close to Saskatoon and then on Friday I went out to my study area and found 4 nests and banded 6 more young. There was 3 nests all within the same bluff which is the closest i've ever seen them together.

Young Long-eared Owls

Adult Long-eared Owl

This was a memorable visit to Saskatoon with one of my main focuses on banding Magpies and trying to trap some Swainson's Hawks. There have been a few Black-billed Magpies with young still around so with some help from my sister and neices we caught a few close to Petrofka Bridge.

young Magpie

The coolest retrap so far in the 11 years of banding has been trapping this 11 year old Swainson's Hawk which was originally banded east of Highway 12 and I caught him close to Costco on the outskirts of Saskatoon. This bird has migrated 10 and a half times from Saskatoon to Argentina, now that is some serious mileage!

Common Ravens

2011-05-28T22:05:00.000-06:00

May.28th 2011

After a long 18 days fighting fires I was lucky to come back to Saskatoon and do a bit of banding. Michelle and I went back to a Raven nest that was used last year. It had 4 extremely large young ready to fledge so we banded four west of the city.

My friend Brent found another nest for us to band which him and I did today. He climbed to the nest which was around 30ft up and found six young staring back at him. I don't think I've ever heard of a nest of six, an average clutch is four young.

I'm amazed at how big these birds are, they weigh as much as a full grown Red-tailed Hawk and they are roughly 4 weeks old.

A big thanks to Michelle and Brent, without their help none of this project would be possible!

Cold Spring

2011-04-13T17:15:00.000-06:00

April.13th 2010

Female Kestrel

I go from banding almost 20 Red-tails and 15 Kestrels last spring to only 1 Redtail and a handful of Kestrels this spring. I'm guessing the mouse and vole population blew up this winter with all the snow cover and left over crops laying in the fields. I've never had Kestrels ignore my bait and I've seen more Kestrels ignore my mice than I have caught birds this year, same goes for hawks. I watched 2 Rough-legged hawks actively hunting by Balckstrap drop down and catch voles like they were given to them on a golden plater. It's more frustrating than anything, especially when the price of gas is 122/ltr.

Male Kestrel

Harriers seem to be plentiful this spring around Saskatoon, I watched as a pair did their mating display along the North Saskatchewan River at my sister's place. There is a pair of kestrels there using one of my boxes and I noticed a pair of Merlins setting up shop in a magpie nest to the west along a shelterbelt. All I need now is Swainson's pair to use the nest they had last year and i should have a productive summer as long as the weather holds.

AHY Red-tailed Hawk

Mike Blom

Slow Start to Spring

2011-03-31T09:29:00.000-06:00

March.31 2011

Springtime is one of my favorite seasons but so far this year in Saskatchewan it has been hard for Old Man Winter to leave us and let the warmer temps settle in. I began calling for Saw-whet Owls at the start of March in hopes of figuring out if any of the owls from the fall had stayed close to home for the cold winter months. On March 15th I was not expecting to catch 3 of my owls from the previous fall over the course of a 2 hr evening. Now either these birds stayed close to my banding site or I was just lucky enough to catch 3 previously banded Saw-whets that were coming back through on their way North again, my guess is that they stayed close to here.

Here is one of them

On March 29th I was out again and with temps at +1C and a slight southerly breeze I decided to try my luck. There was still alot of snow cover but I had a nice clear net lane free from snow and deer except for 2 Ruffed Grouse that almost flew into the net! After half and hour the first owl was caught, a nice small SY male caught around 21:40 and after 10 more mins the larger owl in hand on the left was caught. Turned out to be an SY female and both were above average weight.

Yesterday was above freezing and I wanted to see if I could find any Red-tailed Hawks to road trap. I came across 6 RTHA's and a single Rough-legged Hawk and this Gyrfalcon. The interesting thing about this GYRF is that it was a juvenile and it was banded already. Now that I know there was a Juvy GYRF banded southeast of Tessier where I found this bird the chances are pretty good that it is the same bird. So it could be coincidence that this bird is still floating around the countryside but the chances are even better that it is on it's way back north travelling from Outlook Sk so far to Tessier Sk in an NW direction. Its anyones guess but it sure is nice to see that this bird has made it through it's first winter!

Juvy Gyrfalcon

3 Snows and a Prairie

2011-02-20T21:18:00.002-06:00

Feb.18th 2011

Over the past couple months Snowy Owls have been extremely hard to find in the Saskatoon area. The last one I've banded was back in December. I decided to head out west and search around for whatever I could find, the weather was ideal with bright sunny skies and a light breeze, the temperature was sitting at -30C.

I found 4 Snowies in total, caught 3 of them and a Prairie Falcon. This is the best luck i've ever had in a single day. I've caught 2 SNOWs in a day a few times but never 3. All owls were adult females. Since joining the SNOWY OWL Working Group my views have changed and data has been brought forward to disprove facts that bilogists once thought were true.

One of these theories was that ornithologists and birders could look at a Snowy Owl and tell what age the bird was. This is not at all true when it comes to dark individuals. We thought that darker birds were indeed young birds from the summer's breeding season. We have proven this to not be true. We have caught birds that were black in color and they have been adult females.The vast majority of Snowy Owls turn lighter in color but they can also turn darker in color both male and female. It is something we keep track of as we band more and more birds, we photograph and record molt patterns to see how much they change throughout their lifetime.

ASY Female SNOW

SY PRFA

Mystery Gyrfalcon

2011-02-15T21:24:00.000-06:00

Feb.15th 2011

Went out this afternoon after getting a pigeon from my sister's place. Was heading back from Blaine Lake using back roads to Rosthern then to Hague when I came across this Gyr. It took off from a power pole before I could get setup and swooped down and grabbed a small bird. I was guessing maybe a Horned Lark but I didn't get close enough to see what she was eating. She landed on a fencepost and continued eating while I fumbled around trying to get the pigeon into the trap. She took off again as I laid the trap down so I picked it up and cursed in disgust as she flew away.

I decided to head in the direction she was headed and after almost an hour found her again sitting on a dairy farm silo. I jumped out again to drop the trap but she took off east again toward the river. I was extremely dissapointed thinking she had gotten away so I headed for home. I was following a power line towards the river and saw a large bird sitting at the very top of a dead poplar like a Northern Hawk Owl would. On further investigation with my binos it was indeed the Gyr yet again!

I tossed the trap down and within a few seconds she came in hard and low. Nailed the trap and landed beside it. Walked up and was caught by 6 nooses. The best part of this capture isn't that its the 3rd Gyrfalcon I've caught this year, it's the fact she was wearing a band. I sent in the information to the banding office and wait to hear where she was originally banded.

Winter Raptors

2010-12-16T18:48:00.002-06:00

Dec.16 2010

Over the weekend I went in search of winter raptors. I was mainly focusing on Snowy Owls and this year they have been scarce to say the least around Saskatoon. I decided to head south, went down towards Gardiner Dam hopeful to come across a few SNOW's and maybe a Prairie Falcon or Gyrfalcon. First owl I found was by Glenside, looked like an adult male Snowy but it wasn't interested in what I had to offer. I checked around Gardiner Dam, came up with nothing. It was foggy and it began to snow so I headed back on the west side of the Dam towards Macrorie. I found a dark SNOW and setup for it. I ended up catching it and it was a big adult female. She was in great shape and weighed a heafty 2200 grms.

Adult Female SNOW

I continued west and found an even darker bird hunting along the highway and flying across the highway diving into the ditches. She came up with nothing so I setup and caught her. She was a young SNOW from this year.

Young Female SNOW

I was also fortunate enough to come across a Gyrfalcon south of Saskatoon along highway 219. It was sitting along a powerline and was caught within 20 mins. This is the first GYRF i've banded. Very impressive bird, very strong and very powerful. It was a 2 year old Grey phase female and it weighed in at 1878 grms!!!! So far its been a very productive winter.

Juvenile Gyrfalcon

Mike Blom
Saskatoon Sask Canada

Fall Birds

2010-11-22T21:55:00.000-06:00

Nov.22 2010

Since finishing up the fall owl banding season at Owl Acres totals for saw-whet owls was 197 with 3 foreign retraps. Two of the saw-whets were from Prince Albert Saskatchewan. One was from Portage La Prairie Manitoba banded in 2009.I was able to retrap one of my own saw-whets from the previous year and it arrived 3 weeks earlier this year. A total of 17 Long-eared owls caught which is the highest year ever for me.

Rough-legged Hawk

I have been out road trapping Rough-legged hawks and they seem to be a couple weeks late this year along with Snowy owls compared to last year. I found my first Snowy owl last year on the 4th of November and banded my first on the 11th of Nov.

This year I banded my first SNOW yesterday morning a nice Hatch Year male.

This Great Horned Owl was sitting in my goshawk trap early this morning

Fall Owl Banding

2010-10-14T00:56:00.001-06:00

Oct.14th 2010

So far this has been the best fall since learning how to catch and band owls during fall migration. The weather is absolutely perfect and has been for almost this whole month around Saskatoon. Average nights are 10+ saw-whet owls and the occasional long-eared. I'm very pleased with the amount of birds coming through my banding station this fall. It's only the middle of Oct and i've banded 165 saw-whet owls and after tonight 17 long-eared owls.

I'm thinking of taking next week off because of the full moon. Catch rates drop dramatically when there is too much moonlight. I'm also wishing I had ordered 300 bands for saw-whets instead of the normal 200. I've caught 4 banded birds, one from Manitoba banded last fall, one from this site from last fall which is a first for me, and the other two owls were banded NE of Prince Albert a few weeks ago by Harold Fisher. I hope this weather continues and that the owls keep pushing through.

Mike Blom

Saskatoon, Sk

Back In SaskY

2010-09-16T09:47:00.000-06:00

Sept.15th 2010

After a long absence from Saskatchewan I'm finally back to my good old routine of catching raptors. I have been busy sitting out at the raptor migration station and have only caught a couple of birds so far. An ASY male Cooper's Hawk and a HY Red-tailed hawk which is the one i'm holding with my niece Magdalena.

Last night was good, I was able to call in 3 long-eared owls, catch one of them and a saw-whet owl.

It looks as though next week will be a bad week because of the full moon, in the 7 years of trapping saw-whet owls I've never had any luck catching them when there is a full moon so the first week of October should be dynamite unless it decides to rain, fingers crossed and lack of sleep for the whole month of October.

Kestrel Klean-Up

2010-06-27T08:01:00.000-06:00

June.25th 2010

After 3 long years of being away in Ontario I finally got to band young Kestrels again. I placed 30 Kestrel boxes up in my study site just west of Saskatoon and they have been used off and on every year. This year I would have guessed them to be empty with all of the rain. Most were full but were a couple weeks behind schedule, with adults still incubating eggs.

Michelle and I banded 2 adults and 18 young this first round. Next round there should be another 20-25 young to band if the weather coperates and there is enough food for the young. It was a half decent weekend being back in Saskatchewan. We ended up banding a few Kestrels, Merlins and a Crow. Swainson Hawks on the other don't seem to be doing that good, I was unable to locate any new nests and the 2 that I did find were both abandoned.

Merlin Nest

Common Raven Nest

2010-05-22T21:31:00.000-06:00

May.15th 2010

This was the earliest I could post this Raven nest Michelle and I banded a week ago because I've been working back in Northern Alberta. We found this nest by chance as we were driving to get a coffee in Saskatoon. I saw a Raven fly over my car with a stick in it's bill. It landed on a billboard and hopped in between both signs so we turned around to investigate. This was the 3rd Raven nest I found within the town of Saskatoon this spring. It was an interesting climb but I was able to grab all four chicks and haul them down to get them banded. These are the first colour banded Ravens in Saskatchewan and hopefully if all goes as planned there will be plenty more in future years. Big thanks to my right hand help Michelle!

Billboard with Raven nest

Banded Nestlings

Pair O' Swainson

2010-04-22T20:57:00.001-06:00

April.21st 2010

ASY Female Swainson's Hawk

ASY Male Swainson's Hawk

Had a couple of buddies from Ontario visit me for two days and we went out to my study area by Asquith Sask. We caught and banded this pair of Swainson Hawks. The female was caught first, she was a little on the light side for weight, but her mate the male as in great condition, he was really fat actually. I hadn't caught a SWHA since 2007 because of moving to Ontario for my Forestry course. It has been a fantastic spring with alot of raptors banded. I had an amazing spring for Long-eared Owl banding with a total of 10 banded in 2 nights, best ever for me.

Long-eared Owls

Mike Blom
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Cooper's Hawks

2010-04-17T15:07:00.000-06:00

April.17th 2010

ASY Male Cooper's Hawk

For the last 2 weeks I have been counting migrating raptors at my banding station. It has been slow on the banding front but there have been alot of Red-Tailed hawks. Today brought the first Swaison and Broadwings of the spring. I did see a Coops doing its mating display earlier this morning. I caught and banded 2 Cooper's hawks, A nice ASY(After Second Year) Male and a fiesty SY female.

SY Female Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

2010-04-04T15:39:00.001-06:00

April.3 2010

Well the first few RTHA's have finally arrived. I was out at the Migration station and counted 32 RTHA's, 2 Merlins, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 4 Northern Harriers, 8 Bald Eagles, and the first Sharp-shinned of the spring season. I only had 2 Red-tails come in to have a look at the bait but no takers. On my way home I found a pair of Red-tails hanging around the north Industrial part of Saskatoon. Dropped the trap and the female came in, hit the trap and was caught instantly. She was in great shape weighing in at 1255 grms.

American Kestrel

2010-03-31T18:55:00.000-06:00

March.31st 2010

The weather has been great the last few days and watching the raptor count sites in Michigan and Manitoba I went to Petrofka to setup the Raptor Station. I found this male American Kestrel hover hunting along the highway. I caught him on the wing which is a first for me. The wind was blasting at 40 km\hr so he didn't have much trouble hovering. This is the earliest I have ever caught or seen a Kestrel in Saskatchewan, usually they arrive around April 7th.Hundreds of Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned hawks are coming through southern Manitoba so we should see them here sometime next week. I'll be sitting patiently with my eyes on the skies...

Mike Blom
Petrofka Raptor Station

Petrofka Raptor Station

2010-03-26T21:52:00.000-06:00

March.26th 2010

After work I headed to my sister's acreage and tried to setup my hawk blind complete with nets. Well with the colder temps the ground refroze and the poles wouldn't go into the ground. I went to feed the pigeons in the hawk trap and noticed the trap was closed. I couldn't see a bird bouncing around but once I got closer this SY NOGO was in the trap.

This is the 3rd bird this year. All have been young from last summer. I have been watching the raptor reports at Whitefish Point in Michigan and there are alot of goshawks going through so it would make sense that these guys are on their way back north.

I finally convinced my oldest neice Magdalena to hold it so I could get some photos of her before she released it. She has been up close and personal with more birds of prey than most avid bird watchers.

Prairie Falcon

2010-03-04T22:04:00.000-06:00

March 4th 2010

After work I headed south to try my luck for a Snowy Owl or Gyrfalcon. I've only come across a few Prairie Falcons and this was only the 2nd to react to my pigeon. It was sitting out nicely on a power line and the fog had finally lifted. It weighed in at 555 grms which from what the birds of North America says is light for a male PRFA. I could feel it's keel but it didn't feel under nourished. I'm still on the quest to band a Gyr and there have been a few recently sighted around Saskatoon, probably on their way back north. The temperature has been rising and the snow has been melting, before you know it the Kestrels and RTHA's will be back.

Northern Owls

2010-02-21T21:34:00.000-06:00

This past week was the Snowy Owl Working Groups Conference in Saskatoon and a number of top reasearchers from around the world attended. I had the priviledge of taking Norman Smith and Vin Zallo of Boston Mass up to the Boreal Forest and banded a number of owls. Here are some of the highlights.

ASY Northern Hawk Owl

SY(Second Year) Great Gray Owl

ASY(After Second Year) Great Gray Owl

Norman Smith and I with a newly banded GGOW

Snowy Owl expert Norman Smith with a Saskatchewan Snowy Owl

Nice day for a Great Gray

2010-02-01T21:06:00.000-06:00

Feb.1 2010

After a month of non birding Michelle and I decided to head north for the day. We wanted to see if we could get some photos of GGOW's or anything else for that matter. We were lucky enough to come across a few GGOW's and NHOW's. Here's some pics from today.

Great Gray Owl

Northern Hawk Owl

Weekend in the Boreal

2009-12-21T11:35:00.001-06:00

Sat Dec.19th 2009

After the bad cold snap of -40 c for the past week, we decided to take a trip north into the Boreal Forest to look for some owls. We arrived just as the sun came up and found out first hawk owl around 10am. It was off in the distance but eventually came closer to the road and perched on a power line. Within seconds it was caught, banded and measurements were taken. It was a young bird fom this summer.

We continued driving west and managed to see 9 more hawk owls and 4 Great Grays. We ended our trip banding 8 hawk owls and 2 Great Grays. It was an excellent day and seeing that many owls is always a nice surprise. I know alot of people down south who would love to see the northern owl species, especially in numbers that high.

Newly banded Great Gray Owl

2009-12-18T14:21:00.001-06:00

American Dipper in Saskatoon

2009-12-08T22:32:00.000-06:00

After hearing about the American Dipper by the weir in Saskatoon from Guy Wapple I wanted to check it out for myself. I hadn't seen one since 2001 while birding in Squamish BC for the eagle festival. We found a few of them fishing for salmon eggs as they were being laid. This little guy was fishing along the South Saskatchewan River eating minnows. I wonder where it is now, its -40 C tonight and I wonder if it is still along the river dodging ice flows.

Rough-legged Hawk & Northern Goshawk

2009-12-08T19:39:00.001-06:00

Rough-legged Hawk

Went up north this past weekend to look for owls to band. We did see a Northern Hawk owl which quickly flew away and a gray phase Gyrfalcon who was eating lunch so we couldn't get setup for it. It carried whatever it was eating off to a fence post.
We did however come across 4 Rough-legged hawks though and the first one we saw, we caught right away. Was a beautiful day but not much for owls and so we decided to head home early.

I received a call from Shayne that there was another hawk bouncing around in the Goshawk trap so I headed out and there was this nice massive female Northern Goshawk in the trap. She wasn't happy to have me pin her down and tied up her feet.
I was happy that I was able to get her legs before she could grab me. Biggest Goshawk I've ever caught, this is 4 Northern Goshawks in 2 years. Hope it keeps up and it would be nice to catch an adult which look a lot different then these juveniles.

Northern Goshawk

Kestrel Boxes

2009-07-23T19:26:00.000-06:00

July 18 2009

I got four days off of my busy schedule working for the Alberta Gov't so Michelle and I decided to head back to Saskatchewan for our days off and to check on the last of my kestrel boxes. Out of the 10 we checked we came up with two late nests. The rest of the boxes were occupied but we were too late. The birds that used them were long gone. Of the two boxes that contained young the first had five young, 4 males and one female and the other had three young, 2 males and one female.

Spring Is Here!!!

2009-03-16T18:59:00.000-06:00

March.16th 2009

After a long hard week of school/midterms the weather warmed up and the spring birds arrived 2 weks early. On my way out to my proff's place to check the Goshawk trap I noticed this female kestrel hunting in an abandoned farmyard just off the main highway. As soon as the trap was placed she came in like a heat seeking missile and was caught almost instantly.

Female kestrel

After banding her and taking a few measurements she was released and I was back on my way. I decided to check out the area south of Lindsay where most of the snowy owls turned up this past winter. I found 3 snowies, one younger male who was sleeping on a fence post. Another kestrel flew over and landed on the wires to the north. It was a male and he was caught just as fast as the female before him. Banded, measured then released.

Male Kestrel

After all that was done I headed back to school to meet up with Dave. He asked me to go out and try for some more after seeing the pictures of the two, so we headed out for another stint. All we could come up with though was a northern shrike which didn't waste anytime after the trap was dropped. After loosing a few drops of blood and alot of skin (Dave and myself) Shrikes are the worst possible bird to band! We set it free. It was a SY (second year) bird.

Northern Shrike

Great Horned Owl

2009-01-26T09:46:00.000-06:00

JAn.26 2009

After work I went out just as it was getting dark, I had the massive female snowy owl in mind at the Lindsay airport. I setup my pigeon and pole net and she came in hard and fast and went completely through my net. No luck!

I took everything down and headed for home when I noticed this Great Horned owl hunting from the same spot the snowy used to hunt. This bird must have pushed her out of her hunting area. I tossed down my balchatri and before i could get back into the truck this owl was caught! This owl was an SY (second year) bird and it weighed in at 1520 grms and it's wing chord was 400mm. These horned owls are almost black compared to the ones back in Saskatchewan. My total now for snowy owls observed in the Lindsay area is 10, they seem to be on the move now.

Snowy Owls

2009-01-05T00:13:00.000-06:00

November 25th 2008

Since moving to the City Of Kawartha Lakes 3 years ago I haven't yet managed to come across a single snowy owl until today. I found this HY (hatch-year) male sitting up on one of the poles at the Lindsay airport. I have been banding snowy owls since 2005 back in Saskatchewan, where i'm originally from and have been searching for these beautiful birds since I received my Ontario banding permits in 2006. This young male was in excellent condition weighing in at 1460 grms.

I am partnered up with a fellow bander doing a winter study on these owls for the remainder of the winter here within the City of Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough County and Simcoe County, if anyone has any sightings, I would really appreciate times and locations of SNOW's.

Thank you very much!