The bush is full of owls, but you hardly ever see them. Most of these nocturnal hooters come out to do their business when people are asleep, and that’s why not much is known about them.
Attempting to shed light on the matter is Richard Krikun of the Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory. Krikun just recently started a northern saw-whet owl banding program in addition to his regular banding duties at the LSLBO, and the early results have been spectacular.
“He caught almost 30 owls in the first four days!” said a delighted LSLBO Manager Amy Wotton last week.
The saw-whet is a tiny thing as owls go – seven to nine inches in length. Krikun sets up his nets after dark and attracts the owls by means of recorded mating calls. The call reminded somebody long ago of a saw being sharpened – thus the name saw-whet.
Why the saw-whet?
“It’s the target species because there are so many around,” says Krikun. “Also, other owls are attracted to the saw-whet call.”
The goal is to add to existing knowledge about owl abundance and migration behaviour. Krikun says saw-whets do migrate, but nobody’s really sure how far or where from, or even if all of them do. They’ve been banded in winter around Edmonton, as well as in summer. Beaverhill Bird Observatory east of the city has banded saw-whets before, and Krikun says his data will be added to that of Beaverhill.
Part of the program involves taking feather samples that will later undergo chemical analysis. Krikun says it is possible by such means to determine where the bird lived when it grew the feather, based on knowledge of the food sources in various areas of northern Canada. Saw- whets dine on rodents and smaller birds.
Last Monday night Krikun caught and banded 10 owls. It’s going so well he’s decided to do it every night instead of every other night.
“I don’t want any to get away,” he says.
It makes for a long work day. The regular songbird banding starts at sunrise and goes to about noon. The owl nets go up at about 9:00 p.m. and come down around 1:00 a.m.
In other LSLBO news, the fall migration monitoring is going on as usual. Krikun took over as head bander when Tyler Flockhart left to go back to school. Assisting him for the next few weeks will be a volunteer newly arrived from France.
The fall songbird migration has been pretty slow lately, perhaps due to weather. The banding usually lasts until about mid-October.

Copyright © 2000 The Lakeside Leader. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.

View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster