Winter Raptors

Dec.16 2010

Over the weekend I went in search of winter raptors. I was mainly focusing on Snowy Owls and this year they have been scarce to say the least around Saskatoon. I decided to head south, went down towards Gardiner Dam hopeful to come across a few SNOW's and maybe a Prairie Falcon or Gyrfalcon. First owl I found was by Glenside, looked like an adult male Snowy but it wasn't interested in what I had to offer. I checked around Gardiner Dam, came up with nothing. It was foggy and it began to snow so I headed back on the west side of the Dam towards Macrorie. I found a dark SNOW and setup for it. I ended up catching it and it was a big adult female. She was in great shape and weighed a heafty 2200 grms.


Adult Female SNOW


I continued west and found an even darker bird hunting along the highway and flying across the highway diving into the ditches. She came up with nothing so I setup and caught her. She was a young SNOW from this year.

Young Female SNOW



I was also fortunate enough to come across a Gyrfalcon south of Saskatoon along highway 219. It was sitting along a powerline and was caught within 20 mins. This is the first GYRF i've banded. Very impressive bird, very strong and very powerful. It was a 2 year old Grey phase female and it weighed in at 1878 grms!!!! So far its been a very productive winter.


Juvenile Gyrfalcon


Mike Blom
Saskatoon Sask Canada

Fall Birds

Nov.22 2010

Since finishing up the fall owl banding season at Owl Acres totals for saw-whet owls was 197 with 3 foreign retraps. Two of the saw-whets were from Prince Albert Saskatchewan. One was from Portage La Prairie Manitoba banded in 2009.I was able to retrap one of my own saw-whets from the previous year and it arrived 3 weeks earlier this year. A total of 17 Long-eared owls caught which is the highest year ever for me.


Rough-legged Hawk


I have been out road trapping Rough-legged hawks and they seem to be a couple weeks late this year along with Snowy owls compared to last year. I found my first Snowy owl last year on the 4th of November and banded my first on the 11th of Nov.



This year I banded my first SNOW yesterday morning a nice Hatch Year male.





This Great Horned Owl was sitting in my goshawk trap early this morning

Fall Owl Banding

Oct.14th 2010





So far this has been the best fall since learning how to catch and band owls during fall migration. The weather is absolutely perfect and has been for almost this whole month around Saskatoon. Average nights are 10+ saw-whet owls and the occasional long-eared. I'm very pleased with the amount of birds coming through my banding station this fall. It's only the middle of Oct and i've banded 165 saw-whet owls and after tonight 17 long-eared owls.






I'm thinking of taking next week off because of the full moon. Catch rates drop dramatically when there is too much moonlight. I'm also wishing I had ordered 300 bands for saw-whets instead of the normal 200. I've caught 4 banded birds, one from Manitoba banded last fall, one from this site from last fall which is a first for me, and the other two owls were banded NE of Prince Albert a few weeks ago by Harold Fisher. I hope this weather continues and that the owls keep pushing through.






Mike Blom

Saskatoon, Sk

Back In SaskY

Sept.15th 2010



After a long absence from Saskatchewan I'm finally back to my good old routine of catching raptors. I have been busy sitting out at the raptor migration station and have only caught a couple of birds so far. An ASY male Cooper's Hawk and a HY Red-tailed hawk which is the one i'm holding with my niece Magdalena.







Last night was good, I was able to call in 3 long-eared owls, catch one of them and a saw-whet owl.













It looks as though next week will be a bad week because of the full moon, in the 7 years of trapping saw-whet owls I've never had any luck catching them when there is a full moon so the first week of October should be dynamite unless it decides to rain, fingers crossed and lack of sleep for the whole month of October.

Kestrel Klean-Up

June.25th 2010




After 3 long years of being away in Ontario I finally got to band young Kestrels again. I placed 30 Kestrel boxes up in my study site just west of Saskatoon and they have been used off and on every year. This year I would have guessed them to be empty with all of the rain. Most were full but were a couple weeks behind schedule, with adults still incubating eggs.









Michelle and I banded 2 adults and 18 young this first round. Next round there should be another 20-25 young to band if the weather coperates and there is enough food for the young. It was a half decent weekend being back in Saskatchewan. We ended up banding a few Kestrels, Merlins and a Crow. Swainson Hawks on the other don't seem to be doing that good, I was unable to locate any new nests and the 2 that I did find were both abandoned.



Merlin Nest

Common Raven Nest

May.15th 2010

This was the earliest I could post this Raven nest Michelle and I banded a week ago because I've been working back in Northern Alberta. We found this nest by chance as we were driving to get a coffee in Saskatoon. I saw a Raven fly over my car with a stick in it's bill. It landed on a billboard and hopped in between both signs so we turned around to investigate. This was the 3rd Raven nest I found within the town of Saskatoon this spring. It was an interesting climb but I was able to grab all four chicks and haul them down to get them banded. These are the first colour banded Ravens in Saskatchewan and hopefully if all goes as planned there will be plenty more in future years. Big thanks to my right hand help Michelle!




Billboard with Raven nest











Banded Nestlings

Pair O' Swainson

April.21st 2010



ASY Female Swainson's Hawk




ASY Male Swainson's Hawk


Had a couple of buddies from Ontario visit me for two days and we went out to my study area by Asquith Sask. We caught and banded this pair of Swainson Hawks. The female was caught first, she was a little on the light side for weight, but her mate the male as in great condition, he was really fat actually. I hadn't caught a SWHA since 2007 because of moving to Ontario for my Forestry course. It has been a fantastic spring with alot of raptors banded. I had an amazing spring for Long-eared Owl banding with a total of 10 banded in 2 nights, best ever for me.



Long-eared Owls




Mike Blom
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Cooper's Hawks

April.17th 2010



ASY Male Cooper's Hawk

For the last 2 weeks I have been counting migrating raptors at my banding station. It has been slow on the banding front but there have been alot of Red-Tailed hawks. Today brought the first Swaison and Broadwings of the spring. I did see a Coops doing its mating display earlier this morning. I caught and banded 2 Cooper's hawks, A nice ASY(After Second Year) Male and a fiesty SY female.




SY Female Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

April.3 2010



Well the first few RTHA's have finally arrived. I was out at the Migration station and counted 32 RTHA's, 2 Merlins, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 4 Northern Harriers, 8 Bald Eagles, and the first Sharp-shinned of the spring season. I only had 2 Red-tails come in to have a look at the bait but no takers. On my way home I found a pair of Red-tails hanging around the north Industrial part of Saskatoon. Dropped the trap and the female came in, hit the trap and was caught instantly. She was in great shape weighing in at 1255 grms.

American Kestrel

March.31st 2010



The weather has been great the last few days and watching the raptor count sites in Michigan and Manitoba I went to Petrofka to setup the Raptor Station. I found this male American Kestrel hover hunting along the highway. I caught him on the wing which is a first for me. The wind was blasting at 40 km\hr so he didn't have much trouble hovering. This is the earliest I have ever caught or seen a Kestrel in Saskatchewan, usually they arrive around April 7th.Hundreds of Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned hawks are coming through southern Manitoba so we should see them here sometime next week. I'll be sitting patiently with my eyes on the skies...

Mike Blom
Petrofka Raptor Station

Petrofka Raptor Station

March.26th 2010

After work I headed to my sister's acreage and tried to setup my hawk blind complete with nets. Well with the colder temps the ground refroze and the poles wouldn't go into the ground. I went to feed the pigeons in the hawk trap and noticed the trap was closed. I couldn't see a bird bouncing around but once I got closer this SY NOGO was in the trap.



This is the 3rd bird this year. All have been young from last summer. I have been watching the raptor reports at Whitefish Point in Michigan and there are alot of goshawks going through so it would make sense that these guys are on their way back north.



I finally convinced my oldest neice Magdalena to hold it so I could get some photos of her before she released it. She has been up close and personal with more birds of prey than most avid bird watchers.

Prairie Falcon

March 4th 2010




After work I headed south to try my luck for a Snowy Owl or Gyrfalcon. I've only come across a few Prairie Falcons and this was only the 2nd to react to my pigeon. It was sitting out nicely on a power line and the fog had finally lifted. It weighed in at 555 grms which from what the birds of North America says is light for a male PRFA. I could feel it's keel but it didn't feel under nourished. I'm still on the quest to band a Gyr and there have been a few recently sighted around Saskatoon, probably on their way back north. The temperature has been rising and the snow has been melting, before you know it the Kestrels and RTHA's will be back.

Northern Owls

This past week was the Snowy Owl Working Groups Conference in Saskatoon and a number of top reasearchers from around the world attended. I had the priviledge of taking Norman Smith and Vin Zallo of Boston Mass up to the Boreal Forest and banded a number of owls. Here are some of the highlights.

ASY Northern Hawk Owl

SY(Second Year) Great Gray Owl

ASY(After Second Year) Great Gray Owl

Norman Smith and I with a newly banded GGOW

Snowy Owl expert Norman Smith with a Saskatchewan Snowy Owl

Nice day for a Great Gray

Feb.1 2010

After a month of non birding Michelle and I decided to head north for the day. We wanted to see if we could get some photos of GGOW's or anything else for that matter. We were lucky enough to come across a few GGOW's and NHOW's. Here's some pics from today.

Great Gray Owl

Northern Hawk Owl