Owls, Weather, Owls and More Weather!

As expected, week #2 of the NSWO banding season picked up right from where week #1 ended. Night 8 of the banding season only produced 25 NSWO’s combined between both stations due to some rain showers coming through the area. The following night clear and calm conditions were perfect for owls, and both stations had a combined total of 48 NSWO’s with the majority being banded during the latter half of the night.

Both stations are now starting to see several older owls being banded and a couple of previous years recaptures of RPBO owls have also been caught.

Dorsal (top of wing) of a Second Year (SY) NSWO

Ventral (underside of wing) of the SY under black light illuminating the porphyrin in the feathers. Pink indicates feathers
replaced this year while the pale white feathers indicate retained feathers from last year.

Although we haven’t seen any foreign recaptures (banded at other stations) arrive yet, here’s a wonderful story from Jannaca Chick - Owl Bander in Charge at RPBO. 

A Little Owl’s Travels

Wednesday, September 23rd was my night off for the week. However, I try to maintain my “night owl” schedule by staying up late, and I also monitor the online owl chat in case anyone at our two stations have any questions or issues I can assist with. At 10:40 I noticed that I had a text message from Kristin Mancuso who is the owl bander at Mackenzie Nature Observatory in Mackenzie, BC. Hmmm, interesting … I opened her message which said “We have an older recap NSWO 1124-44609. Is it an RPBO owl?”

Third Year (TY) NSOW caught in MacKenzie BC
 orginally banded at Rocky Point in 2024

Dorsal view of the TY NSWO 

This is why every season I reach out ahead of time to the various owl banders in BC, Washington, Oregon and California. You never know when you could be contacted about a band number that is NOT one of theirs. I tell them to contact me, day or night, because I am usually up until 4:00 a.m. I also contact them if we capture an owl with a band that is not in our inventory, to inquire whose it might be. There are not many owl banding stations in western North America, so we don’t often get what we call “foreign” recaptures, owls banded at another station. Every season RPBO does catch a few of our own banded owls from previous years.

I quickly dashed off a message with this band number to Ann Nightingale who promptly checked our NSWO data submission to the USGS (US Geological Survey) and the Banding Office. We are required to submit our data by the end of every year; that means that the information about all our banded NSWO since the very beginning can be found on their website. Within less than 5 minutes, we had our answer!

USGS Confirmation

Band number 1124-44609 had been banded by me at Rocky Point on October 5, 2024, as a female hatch-year. That means she is now in her third year of life. Needless to say, both Kristin and I were over the moon with excitement! The Mackenzie station is over 1,000 km away from us here on southern Vancouver Island. Who knows where this lovely lady has been since October 2024, but she has obviously travelled far and wide during that time.

 

Mackenzie BC in relation to RPBO (Victoria BC)

The movements of these tiny nocturnal owls are poorly understood. Are they nomadic, are they migratory, where are they going, what are they doing? Where do they breed and where do they spend the winter season? Recapturing owls, whether our own or from other stations, can help us to understand the puzzling movements of these birds. In 2022, I recaptured a hatch-year NSWO that had been banded in Mackenzie a few weeks earlier and then made its way south to get caught in our mist nets. So, we never know what interesting and widely travelled owls we may find at our stations or what interesting messages we might receive in the night!

 

And Then Came the Weather

The owl banding season reminds us that fall is starting to make its way to the south coast and not only do the nomadic NSWO’s arrive but so does the start of a change in the weather. Although week #2 continued to produce good numbers of owls moving through the area, the banding stations lost a couple of nights of banding to rain when the stations didn’t open at all, and another was hampered by wind.

Precipitation (rain) radar heading towards the banding stations.

The Rocky Point station banded 72 fewer NSWO’s than on week #1 but the Pedder Bay station only experienced a decrease of 10 NSWO’s. Typically, the Rocky Point station bands more owls on a nightly basis than Pedder Bay. However, on Sunday September 27^th, Pedder Bay banded 45 owls, almost breaking the station one-night record and nearly twice as many owls than Rocky Point which banded only 29. Pedder Bay had an amazing 10 owls on one net check and 7 on another that night!!

Rocky Point managed to band a 4^th BAOW of the season and it was a very small HY male. A few nights later a Short-eared Owl (SEOW) was observed hunting in the meadow in front of the station in the moonlight. On another night a Western Screech Owl was heard vocalizing near the Rocky Point banding station.

BAOW #4 of the season at Rocky Point

On most nights both stations have been hearing Great-horned Owls (GHOW) around the area, and they have become the “Guardians” of the banding stations at night. Usually when GHOW’s are nearby the BAOW’s tend to leave the immediate area because GHOW are the only known natural predator of Barred Owls.

The number of visitors to the Pedder Bay station increased for the week even though there were a couple nights that the banding was cancelled. Each night that visitors came to see owls they weren’t disappointed and most nights they saw several before heading home.

To register to visit the Pedder Bay banding station to hopefully experience owl banding please follow this link.

https://rpbo.org/what-we-do/community-education/calendar/

 

Jannaca and the owls entertaining the visitors at Pedder Bay

NSWO emerges from the owl bag for the visitors

With week #2 in the books, we are now at 488 NSWO’s banded for the season which is the second highest two-week total on record. The record year of 2017 had banded 726 after two weeks up to this point in time. Still, not bad considering the banding teams lost a few nights due to the weather.

 

There is a huge milestone coming up for week #3 that the banding teams are excited about. As of this past Monday, RPBO has banded 16,984 NSWO’s since the program inception 25 years ago. Only 16 more owls to reach the epic number of 17,000 NSWO’s banded. Which station will get the honour of banding #17,000?? Check back next week to find out!

Who Let the Owls Out? HOOT! .... HOOT! .... HOOT!

Opening Night September 15th

Usually on the first night of the Northern Saw-whet Owl monitoring season there isn’t much anticipation of banding any owls. At best, the teams would hope that 1 or 2 owls would be banded on opening night.

Most of us who have been involved with Rocky Point Bird Observatory for several years have spent many a night during the first week recording zero owls during the sessions. We just don’t know what the owls are doing from a migration point of view.

But then all that is forgotten when a night like September 15, 2026, happens and all the records are broken, not for one RPBO owl banding station, but both!

I was the bander at the Rocky Point station on night one and who (pun intended) would have thought that while opening the nets for the first time and making some adjustments, owls would start to arrive within minutes? Heck, it wasn’t even fully dark, yet when I heard there were 4 owls in nets 5 & 8! Sure enough, as I approached the nets, I could see the distinguishable silhouettes of NSWO’s.

Rocky Point's 1st NSWO of the season

 

The first owl banded this season was a hatch year (HY - born in 2026) of unknown sex.  On this opening night 92% of the owls banded were also HY.

A NSWO hanging around the Rocky Point station after being released

From that point on it was a steady stream of owls being extracted and brought to the banding station and it didn’t stop until net closing 6 hours later. When it was all said and done the Rocky Point banding station set a record of 51 owls banded on opening night.

Jannaca Chick (NSWO Bander-in-Charge) was at the Pedder Bay banding station on opening night. Jannaca reported that once everything at the station was set up and running and some minor adjustments to the nets were made, they didn’t have to wait long to see the first owl. Although not as quickly as Rocky Point, one hour after net opening the first owl of the season appeared at Pedder Bay and it was a beautiful HY female.

Pedder Bay's 1st NSWO of the season

When the team returned to check the nets on the next round 20 minutes later, imagine their surprise when they discovered six owls waiting for them in the nets! After that it was a steady pace of owls for the rest of the night.  Pedder Bay also set a record for the most owls banded on an opening night – with a whopping 29! They were all HY owls (97%), born this year, except for a single older female. A surprising and exciting start to the season!

Jannaca banding at Pedder Bay on night #1

NSWO's after leaving the release box at Pedder Bay

The previous record for opening night of NSWO’s banded at RPBO was back in 2017 when the Rocky Point station banded 40 owls and the Pedder Bay station banded 15 owls for a total of 55 owls. 2026 now has the honor of holding the new opening night record for both stations with Rocky Point banding 51 and Pedder Bay banding 29 for an amazing, mind-boggling total of 80 owls!!!

Who indeed let the owls out!??

 

Week #1 Summary

The NSWO visitor program also started this week at the Pedder Bay station, operating from Friday to Monday. A total of 76 visitors visited the banding station and each night the visitors got to experience numerous owls being banded.

To experience the owl banding at Pedder Bay register at:

https://rpbo.org/what-we-do/community-education/calendar/

  

Visitors at the Pedder Bay station

Each year both banding stations at RPBO catch other species of owls in the nets, not just NSWO.  This season the Rocky Point station captured their first Barred Owl (BAOW) on September 18^th - a HY male. A few nights later 2 more BAOW’s were caught in quick succession at Rocky Point, a HY female and male.

Rocky Point HY male BAOW on September 18th

Rocky Point HY female BAOW on September 20th

Typically, from previous years statistics at RPBO it can be expected that for every 50 NSWO’s that are banded, one BAOW will also be banded. For 2026 we are slightly below that average, but we are expecting to see more BAOW’s as the season progresses.

The rest of week #1 continued to produce very good numbers of owls being banded at both stations. Rocky Point tends to band more owls compared to Pedder Bay and the same is true this year. Rocky Point did experience some high winds on September 21st and needed to close the nets early for the night which resulted in only 2 owls being banded.

Week #1 totals for Rocky Point were 180 NSWO's banded with 6 recaptures from this year and also previous years. 3 BAOW's were also banded and they were all HY.

Week #1 totals for Pedder Bay were 105 NSWO's banded with 2 recaptures from this year.

How does week #1 rank compared to previous years? Combined, 2026 week #1 had a total of 285 NSWO's and it ranks as our 3rd best start to a season behind 2017 (398) and 2023 (301). Still, a very good start to the NSWO season at Rocky Point Bird Observatory.

 

Both Jannaca and I are using Nocpix Lumi Handheld Thermal Monoculars this year at the banding stations and in between banding owls I managed to capture a short thermal image video of NSWO’s leaving one of our release boxes. We are looking forward to using the Nocpix more as the season progresses and hopefully set them up in the owl net lanes to see what is happening when our team members are not there. Who knows what the cameras will record??

 

A big shout out to the volunteers who have been able to come out and spend a good part of the night at the banding stations. They truly are night owls!!

Anne Cotter mending a net in between extracting owls

Until next week … Happy Hooting!!

 

It's All About Owls

Welcome to the Rocky Point Bird Observatory “RPBO After Dark” blog. Over the next 6 weeks the Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding team will be endeavouring to post weekly updates on how owl banding is progressing at the Rocky Point and Pedder Bay owl banding stations. This year marks the 25^th anniversary of owl banding at CFAD Rocky Point and 16 years for Pedder Bay. WOW!! A whole quarter century of banding Northern Saw-whet Owls at Rocky Point Bird Observatory.

"Grace" The 2024 Cutest Owl

From Tuesday September 15^th through to October 31^st, both the Pedder Bay (Open to Public) and the Rocky Point (Restricted Access) stations will be opening 12m x 3.2m owl mist nets from a half hour after sunset for a period of 6 hours, depending on the weather. Rocky Point uses 8 nets while Pedder Bay uses 7.  An audio device (the banding team call it the “Tooter”) is used to play a male NSWO (toot, toot, toot) call, which has been part of the standardized protocol since 2002 to attract the owls to the research area.

How many owls has RPBO banded over the years? As of the end of the 2025 season a staggering total of 16,479 Northern Saw-whet Owls have been banded between both stations. This makes them the most banded species in all the RPBO banding projects combined. Since the beginning of the owl project in 2002 we have also caught and banded 181 Barred Owls, 8 Long Eared Owls, 3 American Barn Owls, 1 Western Screech Owl, and 1 Great Horned Owl (that was processed but not banded).

This year’s banding team will consist of Jannaca Chick as the Bander in Charge returning for her 8^th year, and Mark Byrne returning for his 3^rd year as an owl bander. This year the relief banders who cover days off, will be Ann Nightingale, Robyn Byrne and Katie McCreesh as needed, and Taemar Verbaarschot who will be continuing her training to obtain her owl banding permit. Mike Motek will once again be leading the team as the Project Coordinator. 

Jannaca Chick describing the banding process of an NSWO
to a group of visitors to the Pedder Bay banding station

Pedder Bay will be hosting four weekly scheduled visitor nights Friday through Monday throughout the season. There will be three one-hour time slots of 8 visitors per hour. The link for visitor registration for Pedder Bay Marina visits can be found on the RPBO website on the Event Calendar. This link will take you directly there:

https://rpbo.org/what-we-do/community-education/calendar/

 

How it all began

You might be wondering how the NSWO project came to be at RPBO. While thinking about writing this blog I was also wondering who and when the project started.  Fortunately, RPBO has owl reports dating back to the beginning and they contain much valuable information and provide some insight into the history of the Nocturnal Owl Monitoring Project.

It all began at CFAD Rocky Point in 2002 as a pilot project by RPBO Director Paul Levesque after several Northern Saw-whet Owls were caught and banded during the daytime Migration sessions in previous years. Paul was aware of an organization called Project Owlnet and he proposed to the RPBO Board that a test sample (pilot project) be conducted to see if these owls were migrating through the area where the Rocky Point banding station was located. RPBO is still affiliated with Project Owlnet, and Ann Nightingale is a member of their working group.

RPBO Director Paul Levesque

The 2002 pilot operated between September 19th and November 2^nd over 19 nights using 3 to 6 nets, depending on the weather and having enough volunteers and a bander to participate. Having no idea what the migration of owls might be like, some of the teams pulled “all nighters” on 12 nights from sunset through to sunrise when the weather was favourable. Some of those nights consisted of over 11 hours, with many being very chilly! 

Ann Nightingale pulling an "all nighter" Brrrrrr!

Today, the owl banding teams are operating for a tolerable standardized 6 net hours. Owl volunteers and banders will tell you that they truly become “night owls” when it comes to putting in time at the stations. Once the owl project begins the teams are jokingly known to be going over to the “Dark Side”, especially after volunteering during the early mornings of the Fall Migration Monitoring project.

Kelsey Low scribing, Gabe David banding and extractor Margie Shepard looking on

How successful was the pilot project in 2002? A total of 210 NSWO and 3 Barred Owl's (BAOW) were banded! In 2003 it was then determined that the Nocturnal Owl Monitoring Project would begin using standardized methods – opening the nets a half an hour after sunset and remaining open for a 6-hour period, depending on the weather, etc. This protocol has basically remained the same since 2003, although there have been some upgrades to the banding stations and equipment over the years.

One of the first weighing tubes

The audio lure technology has changed since 2002

Many of the volunteers involved way back in 2002 with RPBO are no longer with the organization but there are a few that have been around since day one of the NSWO project. Just to name a few - Ann Nightingale, Marilyn Lambert, Robert Gowan, Cheryl Mackie, Sharon Godkin, and Rod Mitchell are still involved with RPBO in various capacities.

During my research for this blog, I was surprised to find out that the original NSWO nets were in a stand of Gary Oaks east of the Rocky Point banding station, but due to a big windstorm in 2006 the area became unusable and the current net locations were established. A few changes to the net configurations happened over the next couple of years but as of 2009 the net locations haven't changed. Of course, the habitat has changed somewhat with the winter storms taking its toll on trees and vegetation in the owl nets lanes.

A creative way to raise operating funds
and enjoy a night of owls in 2011

In the fall of 2011, a NSWO pilot was conducted at Pedder Bay Marina along the fire road which is behind the current banding station and part of the Migration Monitoring census route. An owl barbeque (no owls were on the menu LOL) was hosted at the Pedder Bay RV Resort gazebo to raise money to support the purchase of nets and other equipment for the new Pedder Bay station. From what I have heard it was a great event hosted by the volunteers of RPBO with food and music and the opportunity to possibly see a Northern Saw-whet Owl being banded. 

It was an opportunity for the attendees to experience what the NSWO project was doing, and it helped establish the Pedder Bay banding station in 2012. In 2014 the standardized NSWO project began at Pedder Bay. Having this project at a location accessible to the public has enabled RPBO to educate people about this charismatic nocturnal species that is extremely difficult to find in the wild, and to gain an understanding of why owl research is important to the lives of these birds.

The owl barbeque at the Pedder Bay Marina gazebo

Rebecca and Emma Reader-Lee playing
their violins at the 2011 owl barbeque

How will the 2026 NSWO season be in terms of numbers expected to be banded?? It depends on several factors such as how successful was the breeding season, how abundant was the food source of small rodents such as mice and voles during spring and summer, was the environment where they bred or migrate through affected by severe weather or forest fires? The answer is - we don’t know how many NSWO are expected this year, but our owl gurus are estimating that we could expect around 1,050. To put that in perspective here are the totals from the last few years. 

Year	NSWO’s
2025	737
2024	1,251
2023	1,455
2022	356

Check back soon to see how the 2026 owl season is doing.

Until next time …… Toot, toot, toot!!