Weathering Out The Owls

Photo by Robyn Byrne

The final full week of owl banding began with hopes that the steady migration of NSWO’s would continue right to the end of the month but this week we started to see a change in the weather patterns with increasing winds and rain occurring.

RPBO has 3 remaining Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) Blūbat tags to deploy on BAOW’s. On night 1 of Week 6, Pedder Bay was able to use one when a BAOW captured and banded prior to the visitors arriving at the station. 

Pedder 1 with Blūbat tag ready for release
Photo by Ann Nightingale

Cupcakes made by volunteer Anna
Photo by Ann Nightingale

After banding double digits of NWSO's for the first 2 nights, both stations experienced a sudden decrease in NSWO’s even though night 4 had perfect colder and calm conditions. The banding teams were thankful for their battery-powered vests, socks and handwarmers! Forecasted heavy rain on night 5 resulted in the cancellation of banding altogether before the volunteers and visitors arrived.

All week at Rocky Point BAOW(s) have been seen around the net lanes nightly and even managed to get caught in the nets a few times only to escape before the extractors were able to capture it. There is a sense of urgency to deploy the remaining Blūbat tags before the end of the season because the batteries only last for about 18 months once activated.

The elusive Barred Owl at Rocky Point
Photo by Mark Byrne

A windy night 6 surprisingly produced a few owls to band and to round out the week on night 7 both stations banded 5 owls each. The wind does create a bit of a problem as the net does get tangled in the bells that we deploy on the trammel lines. One of our volunteers that night (thanks Craig) suggested some sort of disk to shield the bells from the net and so the team went to work to fabricate protoypes using my thermos cup as the template and empty hand warmer carbobard boxes.

Fishing bell wind screen. Easy Peasey!
Photo by Mark Byrne

While walking into the station on night 7, the team at Rocky Point were able to watch a Short-eared Owl (SEOW) hunting for about 5 minutes in the nearby meadow. Catching a SEOW would be a first for RPBO, but it wouldn’t happen on this night nor would we capture a BAOW as it also didn’t come near the net lanes. 

Short-eared Owl flies by the Rocky Point banding team at dusk
Photo by Mark Byrne

Rocky Point finished the week with only 49 NSWO’s banded while Pedder Bay banded 40. Quite a difference in numbers from the previous 5 weeks.Throughout the week the banding teams have been monitoring hatch-year BAOW’s Rocky 1,2 & 3 along with Pedder 1 - the owls with the Blūbat tags. 

It’s been amazing to follow their movements using the Cellular Tracking Technologies app which provides real time locations for all the owls that have been deployed around Victoria. Video created by Ann Nightingale.

The banding teams did surpass the 1200th NSWO for this season and as of the end of week 6, 1251 NSWO’s had been banded.  So far, this is the fourth highest annual total since the project started in 2001 (25 years ago). In 2024, 1252 NSWO's were banded so all we need this season is 2 more NSWO’s! Next week will be the final post of the 2026 RPBO After Dark blog so check back soon to see how the season finished up.