[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Bottoming out at Hilton Pond?



HI . . .

Here's a Northern Saw-whet Owl banding update from Hilton Pond Center 
for Piedmont Natural History, York, South Carolina, for the period 
11/28/99 through 12/14/99:

Northern Saw-whet Owls--7
Eastern Screech-Owl (brown phase)--1

There have been no recaptures.

Despite five nights of dusk-to-dawn net sets over the past week, I 
have not had a NSWO since 12/7/99. I'm not sure whether, by not 
starting until 11/28, I simply caught the tail-end of migration or if 
some other factors are involved.  We've had a couple of good weather 
fronts in the past week that "should" have brought birds further 
south, but no dice. (There have been a few mildly windy nights over 
the past seven days, which may have made the audiolure more difficult 
to hear.)

BTW, I've learned from Bird Banding Lab data that prior to this fall 
only four NSWO had ever been banded in South Carolina, three by E.C. 
Clyde (1960, 1963 & 1969) of Effingham and the most recent in 1972 by 
Evelyn Dabbs west of Sumter. (Mr. Clyde's birds were netted in 
December, January, and February; Evelyn's was on 23 November.) All 
four of these birds were netted in the Coastal Plain, so the seven 
birds I've handled to date are the first in South Carolina's Piedmont 
physiographic province. I understand Will Post of The Charleston (SC) 
Museum has also netted one NSWO this fall and that he may be running 
night nets again.


Happy Owling!

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.

**********