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SC Saw-whet Owl Bandings



Stimulated by Robin Carter's sighting two weeks ago of a Northern 
Saw-whet Owl in Columbia SC, I decided to try to mist net for this 
elusive species at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 
near York SC.

The Northern Saw-whet Owl is described as a "rare winter visitor" to 
South Carolina by Post & Gauthreaux (1989), and little is known about 
saw-whet migration or winter behavior in the southeastern U.S. 
However, there has been a major invasion of saw-whets across the 
eastern states this fall, with some sites netting as many as 70 to 
100 per night and more than 500 for the season. (The best station I 
know of so far is in Schuylkill County, PA with 730-plus saw-whets as 
of 11/18.) Some of the sites are also capturing birds banded a few 
days previously at other sites more than 100 miles away, so the owls 
are obviously on the move.

Saw-whet mist netting protocol calls for a line of four or more 
single- or double-tier mist nets set in a straight line in a wooded 
area. Halfway down the net lane, a tape player blasts out the 
monotonous whistling call of the saw-whet at 100 decibels or so, 
hopefully attracting the attention of any owls flying over in 
migration while not keeping the neighbors awake. Nets are placed in a 
wooded area rather than in an open field; they are unfurled at dusk 
and remain open as long as the bander can stay awake.

On the evening of 28 November--after spending three days setting up 
the net lanes and running 500 feet of extension cord for the 
audiolure--I began my career as an insomniac owl bander. I opened the 
nets at 6:15 pm and shut down at 12:15 am, having caught no birds. 
(An Eastern Cottontail did manage to run through the bottom of one 
net, however.)

Last night (30 November) was a different story, and at the 10:15 pm 
check I had TWO Northern Saw-whet Owls in adjoining nets. I'm not 
sure whether these are the first saw-whets banded in the state, but 
there can't have been many because nearly all banding work done in 
South Carolina has been diurnal. (I've contacted the federal Bird 
Banding Lab for info about previous saw-whet bandings in SC.) I ran 
the nets all night but caught no new birds after those first two. One 
as a young bird of the year, while the other was in its second-year. 
The saw-whets became the 121st species banded at Hilton Pond and the 
160th species for the "yard list."

The moral of the story for Carolina birders is that there are indeed 
Northern Saw-whet Owls in the vicinity. Unfortunately, they're tiny, 
silent in migration, and nocturnal, so the likelihood of seeing one 
without a mist net is slim. Again, what most of us can hope for is to 
follow Robin Carter's lead and use Brown-headed Nuthatch owl-mobbing 
behavior to find a saw-whet in daylight.

Right now (10:30 am) I'm running my songbird nets in daylight and 
rubbing my eyes every few minutes, eager for sunset so I can push the 
button on the tape recorder and try again tonight for more of those 
elusive Northern Saw-whet Owls.

Sleepily yours,

BILL
**********

BILL HILTON JR.
"The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA

e-mail: <hilton@rubythroat.org>

Voice & Fax: (803) 684-5852

Operation RubyThroat Website: <http://www.rubythroat.org>


"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to 
watch the sunset."

						BHjr.

**********