Happy Owloween

Banders  Nicole Richardson and Chris Sukha  holding our 35th and 36th boreal owls of the season. Spooktacular!!!

members owl night

Sid a happy bander with a boreal owl 

Friday the  21st of October  the marsh hosted a members  owl banding night and we were delighted  to see 30 members come out to ask questions and to see 2 species of owls  that we  were able to catch.  We passed our 500th sawwhet of the season and we were able to recapture a boreal owl that was banded  2 nights ago.
      There is a different energy to a members night then when we have a public night. We certainly delight in meeting new people who come out to see  owls for the first time and we always to attempt to celebrate the effort that people make to get their kids closer to nature and to  feel the excitement of  seeing an owl up close for the first time. The difference with members is they have committed to the marsh and their is a good chance we are going to see them again and begin to foster a relationship and  introduce them to the marsh community which is growing all the time. I can never thank members enough for their financial support that they give us by buying a membership. It really is the only way we are able to afford to carry on the exciting research that we do at the marsh.  Some marsh members have taken their initial interest and support into becoming active volunteers  in our research and our committee  work which we are hugely thankful for.  So once again thank you to all of our marsh members and visitors. If you would like to become a marsh member and support our research please visit our website  www.thehilliardtonmarsh.com  and fill out the online form. While our public owl banding nights are now over we continue to do research on boreal and long eared owls. It has been our experience that these elusive owls  are too difficult to catch  have public nights for  and their are many nights that we monitor empty nets making it all the more exciting when we do capture owls. I will keep posting our sucess on the blog so you can keep up with the research that will takes us hopefully into November. Often these owls are captured long after publi hours are over which also makes it not practical to invite the publci to see. So thanks  to all of you who came out on public nights to see the owls and a very special thank you to all the marsh members for your continued support . You know we need you "owl" the time !!!!!!  Did i make you groan??? I think I did .

Cam and Mary Demarce  easier to hold then a hummingbird

Karyn  Grezesiak with a sawwhet

Grezesiak clan starting  the kids young with owls a great idea 

Joanne and Jamie MacLauchlin with a cooperative sawwhet

A photo recap of the last week at the marsh

While people may be familiar with the expression a picture says a thousand words they may not be familiar with another expression which i will take to heart. A friend once told me if something  can go without saying let it!!! I will heed that advice and let the photo's guide you through this blog.

Carolina Wren first ever banded in Timiskaming

winter wren banded at marsh a rarity to band at the marsh although we hear them singing  every spring 

Lions club enjoying private night at the marsh donated by Terry Caldwell who won the night at the fund raising golf tournament 

Ron Judd with a winter wren

visiting students  at the marsh

Go blue jays!!!

Our 9th white breasted nuthatch banded  at the marsh

siskins

winter is coming!!!

Our earliest shrike on record  what does it mean????

Bander in charge Chris Sukha with northern shrike

 owl banding night

what is inside of an owl peller

Private owl night winner from one foot forward Kara Jonson

American tree sparrow with partial albinism (leucistic)

cool

It was 14 years between banding sharp shinned hawks at the marsh for Erin

Fox Sparrow and Ron

owl and banding update Oct 10th

happy visitor 

Before I  get started I wanted to state that I really enjoy doing this blog and keeping  anyone who has the interest in how we are doing at the marsh in the loop. Having said that we do not have an internet connection at the marsh and during the owl banding season i am just too wary to find the time  to write about our avian adventures in the boreal forest. Its a shame as often when we do not have visitors at the marsh I have  enough downtime to  write about what we have encountered at the nets or on the trail.

shay a researcher from the south hoping to see a boreal owl but content with a long eared

We have been enjoying a great owl season  and last night passed our 400th banded  sawwhet  and after the 37 sawwhets banded  we have under 150 birds left to reach our 7000 sawwhet banded since starting in 2000.  A lot of  volunteers have given up a lot of pillow time  to help us reach this milestone .  So thanks  to everyone over the years that have felt the  pinch of a sawwhet and have suffered the teasing of being at work sleep deprived .
\In other owl news  we have banded 14 long eared owls  and 2  boreal owls. Reading the blog from Tadoussac bird observatory  a leading boreal research station in eastern Quebec they have only banded 11  boreals and have  stated that fo the first time in 20 years of research they feel that the boreals are not moving on  the fourth year of their 4 year cycle. A bander in northern Saskatchewan  near Prince Albert also has only banded 2 boreal owls which is shocking for the anticipated peak of the boreal migration.

long term owl bander Warren Verina back for a night of owls

The photo's that follow will chronicle some of our banding in the past week and we have been very happy to welcome back some familiar faces to the marsh

long eared on social media on a phone 

Greg rand returns  and shows his support for the blue jays  rumor has it his real team is the expo's

So happy to have Chris Suhka back after his banding job in northern British Columbia

Greg with a very late red eyed vireo caught this Friday

Joanne with the thanksgiving throng

keen well behaved young banders

Greg sporting his Canada nature museum hat  where he works in Ottawa and  a long eared owl which we recaptured the following night

Timiskamings fourth ever Carolina Wren wandered into our feeder at home  good thing jo was watching 

owl banding can make a zombie out of you nice to have Curtis back to marsh

another curtis  Curtis Quniton an appreciated owl banding volunteer

Pneumonia Alberta Wedding Owls and more....

wislon snipe caught while owl banding !

Well it seems like forever since I have been able to post a blog and this one is going to be quick just to allow me to get back on track.  The week before I was to  leave for a week to attend a family wedding in red deer I was hit with pneumonia which  had me out of commission for a while . Thanks goodness Nicole Richardson and Sid Coll were at the marsh  and came
to the rescue. They caught some really interesting birds which we will chronicle in a later blog. The reason for this is that one of our volunteers mark Milton took the log sheets  so I do not have the totals for the month but will have them soon as he is putting them into excel. Thanks for taking care of that Mark!

Nicole Richardson with a long eared and boreal owl

Upon my return we have been banding owls full tilt and I believe to date we have banded over 300 sawwhets  10 long eared owls and 2 boreals . We were expecting a peak of the boreal migration this year but most likely due to very mild temperatures in the evening the migration has not materialized yet but the season may be young. There will be more news to come we are looking forward to hitting a few thresholds first we are a very few owls away from hitting our 7000 owl banded at the marsh and we will also be closing in on  7000 for the sawwhets this season as well but I think we would need another 500 for that so it may have to wait for another banding year. So sorry for dropping the blog ball but sickness  family merriment and fatigue  sometimes do not give time to blog. More to come. The other excuse I have is that we do not have internet connection at the marsh leaving  me to fight the urge to sleep and blog when I get home and until today sleep has one every time . Bird is the word !!!



some photo highlights of the past while  or at lest what i was there for

Back from Bolivia Erin O'reily helping out at the marsh once again

Black throated green warbler 

Magpie  proof I  was in Alberta

Young bander Cam  up late with the owls 

Ouch!! Look at Nicole's Sleeves

This Piliated was a retrap it was banded this may by Chris Sukha

Dave Miada from Ruthven park banding station up for a visit and to lend a hand 

we hosted 2 private nights with northern college

Northern college  avian students  booked a morning of song bird banding 

private owl night

passing on a love of nature

long eared owl posing in front of owl curtain 

girl guides working on nature badge

culture day event at the marsh

TD sponsored  a tree planting event at the marsh last Saturday thanks to TD we have  more habitat for birds at the marsh