The weigh in which blew my mind! The oldest chick hatched on June.17th is already 104 grms!
Here is the whole batch of six young Saw-whets and 3 which were sitting on a branch.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Saw-whets are ready...
It was beautiful outside this morning so I took advantage and decided to band my nestling Saw-whet Owls from a nest box close to Peace River. Pictures are from the start of egg laying to the finale of banding.
The weigh in which blew my mind! The oldest chick hatched on June.17th is already 104 grms!
Here is the whole batch of six young Saw-whets and 3 which were sitting on a branch.
The weigh in which blew my mind! The oldest chick hatched on June.17th is already 104 grms!
Here is the whole batch of six young Saw-whets and 3 which were sitting on a branch.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Summer flying by!!!
Between fire season and time off, the weather hasn't been the best this summer. I had a total of 5 Long-eared Owl nests this spring and after banding the first two nests, I went back to check on the remaining three and they all failed. I honestly don't know what might have caused them to fail but I went back to check on them and the adults were no longer there.I know in previous years back home in Saskatchewan when it is wet like 40+ mms of rain wet the owls don't do so well. Here are a couple shots from the middle of May. 
Cruising around this part of NW alberta has been a serious past time, I couldn't beleive my eyes when I came across a Swainson's Hawk this far north, the male was a light morph while the female pictured below sitting on the nest was a rufous morph. I'm finding alot of new things up here, i'll have to start to publish some of my findings which include extended the range of SWHA's, Cooper's Hawks and Long-eared Owls in Alberta. 
Heading west of Peace River I was able to trap this male Rufous Red-tailed Hawk. Their nest was close by so I'm hoping to band their nestlings in a few days. 
On June.17 visiting one of my Saw-whet Owl nest boxes I was finally able to catch the female sitting on 6 eggs. She had a large brood patch and seemed in fairly plump shape weighing 125 grms. There were also 2 prey items in the nest. One deer mouse and a red backed vole. This was also the day the first of six eggs began to hatch. 
Cruising around this part of NW alberta has been a serious past time, I couldn't beleive my eyes when I came across a Swainson's Hawk this far north, the male was a light morph while the female pictured below sitting on the nest was a rufous morph. I'm finding alot of new things up here, i'll have to start to publish some of my findings which include extended the range of SWHA's, Cooper's Hawks and Long-eared Owls in Alberta. 
Heading west of Peace River I was able to trap this male Rufous Red-tailed Hawk. Their nest was close by so I'm hoping to band their nestlings in a few days. 
On June.17 visiting one of my Saw-whet Owl nest boxes I was finally able to catch the female sitting on 6 eggs. She had a large brood patch and seemed in fairly plump shape weighing 125 grms. There were also 2 prey items in the nest. One deer mouse and a red backed vole. This was also the day the first of six eggs began to hatch. 
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Some new spring birds
This spring started off a little slower than I intially expected but I was still able to band a few raptors on their journey north. I was very lucky to catch a couple more Rough-legged Hawks, these are the most stunning Buteos we have in my opinion. 
AHY male Rough-legged Hawk 
Female second year Rough-legged Hawk Kestrels have been coming through the Peace Region in large numbers and i've been very lucky this spring with just over 30 banded so far. My biggest surprise was trapping 2 Northern Harriers while having Kestrels caught on my traps. Here is a nice Adult Male Harrier. 
This year with the help of the local nature society we put together a nest box program for Northern Saw-whet Owls and Boreal Owls. We placed 15 boxes up and I placed another 15 of my own boxes up around Peace Region within the Boreal forest. Here is a shot from one of the boxes. 
Saw-whet Owl And finally, it is that time again to bring out the Ravens. I found a whopping 12 nests this spring and it looks like only 2 of the 12 failed this spring, here is a picture from the first batch. These birds were nesting right in town just down the street from my house. I have had my eyes on this nest since the middle of March, 4 young all over 900 grms. 
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Spring Migrants Arrive
April.15th 2012
After our big dump of snow from Friday the roads were cleared and I was able to get out to do some road trapping around Peace River. I installed a few Kestrel boxes and found a good concentration of Rough-legged Hawks. First hawk I found ontop of Judah Hill was this Red-tailed, it came in as soon as I pulled away. Nice AHY male and was caught by 2 nooses. Its the first Redtail that has landed on the trap this spring.
AHY Male Red-tailed Hawk
Heading south to Harmon Valley Road found a few more hawks hunting in the snow covered fields but none would react. I headed east along HVR and found a group of Kestrels which I've never observed before. Usually families in August will hang out together before the young ones disperse, there were 5 adults hanging out together on a powerline, 3 females and 2 males, I was able to catch 2 of the females but the rest took off south.
Came across another field with a few Rough-legged Hawks hunting, there were 3 of them on the same branch so I dropped the trap and right away this beauty of a male came in and was caught. I don't know if the males are showing off their hunting skills for the females but anyway its always nice to hold such a beautiful bird and have a look at them up close and personal.
AHY Male Rough-legged Hawk
I went home for a bite to eat then headed back out for a bit. There was this male Kestrel hunting from a tree beside the road so I dropped the trap for him and he came in and was caught. Before I could turn the car back on a male Harrier came out of nowhere and attacked the Kestrel! I couldn't believe it, and out of nowhere yet again another male Harrier was attacking the first Harrier that was now caught! Another Kestrel decided to join the other Kestrel and 2 Harriers and I was just dumb founded!!! Is this even possible? And to top it all off a Sharp-shinned came in to see what all the commotion was about. I have never witnessed 5 raptors all going crazy over each other the way I just did, it was a pretty intense moment! After all the feathers had settled, I was able to catch the first two birds on the trap at the same time.
AHY Male American Kestrel
AHY Male Northern Harrier
First time I've ever caught a Northern harrier on a trap. There are more birds out here in Northern Alberta than I ever thought, Michelle was extremely happy with being able to hold her first Northern Harrier, one of her favourite birds...
After our big dump of snow from Friday the roads were cleared and I was able to get out to do some road trapping around Peace River. I installed a few Kestrel boxes and found a good concentration of Rough-legged Hawks. First hawk I found ontop of Judah Hill was this Red-tailed, it came in as soon as I pulled away. Nice AHY male and was caught by 2 nooses. Its the first Redtail that has landed on the trap this spring.
AHY Male Red-tailed Hawk
Heading south to Harmon Valley Road found a few more hawks hunting in the snow covered fields but none would react. I headed east along HVR and found a group of Kestrels which I've never observed before. Usually families in August will hang out together before the young ones disperse, there were 5 adults hanging out together on a powerline, 3 females and 2 males, I was able to catch 2 of the females but the rest took off south.
Came across another field with a few Rough-legged Hawks hunting, there were 3 of them on the same branch so I dropped the trap and right away this beauty of a male came in and was caught. I don't know if the males are showing off their hunting skills for the females but anyway its always nice to hold such a beautiful bird and have a look at them up close and personal.
AHY Male Rough-legged Hawk
I went home for a bite to eat then headed back out for a bit. There was this male Kestrel hunting from a tree beside the road so I dropped the trap for him and he came in and was caught. Before I could turn the car back on a male Harrier came out of nowhere and attacked the Kestrel! I couldn't believe it, and out of nowhere yet again another male Harrier was attacking the first Harrier that was now caught! Another Kestrel decided to join the other Kestrel and 2 Harriers and I was just dumb founded!!! Is this even possible? And to top it all off a Sharp-shinned came in to see what all the commotion was about. I have never witnessed 5 raptors all going crazy over each other the way I just did, it was a pretty intense moment! After all the feathers had settled, I was able to catch the first two birds on the trap at the same time.
AHY Male American Kestrel
AHY Male Northern Harrier
First time I've ever caught a Northern harrier on a trap. There are more birds out here in Northern Alberta than I ever thought, Michelle was extremely happy with being able to hold her first Northern Harrier, one of her favourite birds...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Late Winter Owls
It has been relatively quiet around Peace country the last little while. I haven't been out looking for Snowy Owls for almost 2 weeks, last time I was out I found 2 new owls in areas I haven't searched before and I was lucky to find these two young males. The first male was light, 1310 grms
where the second male was in great shape at 1700 grms.
Most of all the hawkowls have moved on, I still have 2 hawkowls that are sitting exactly where i caught them around christmas time but I found 2 new ones, the first one pictured here came in without even using a live mouse, I had a frozen vole in my car and as soon as it hit the ground this bird came in right away, the other hawkowl I caught that day was far out in a field hunting, so I played the call and it came in with a flock of redpolls in pursuit, as i held the hawkowl the redpolls would flutter beside my hand, i've never witnessed that before!
Last night I was thinking why not try for Boreal Owls just to see if anything was floating around, the night was perfect at -10 C and no wind with clear skies. I setup one mist net under a stand of White Spruce trees that were 60+ feet tall to block out the moonlight right beside Leddy Lake which is 15 mins north of Peace River. First net check produced this SY BOOW.
I left the BOOW call on for another hour with no more birds caught so I decided to switch the call to Saw-whets and the next net check produced 2 Saw-whets, both SY birds which I thought was very strange. Either these birds have stayed up here all winter or else they are coming through now which to me would seem early. The molt of all three of these birds were even right across the wing so i'm thinking young from last summer.
where the second male was in great shape at 1700 grms.
Most of all the hawkowls have moved on, I still have 2 hawkowls that are sitting exactly where i caught them around christmas time but I found 2 new ones, the first one pictured here came in without even using a live mouse, I had a frozen vole in my car and as soon as it hit the ground this bird came in right away, the other hawkowl I caught that day was far out in a field hunting, so I played the call and it came in with a flock of redpolls in pursuit, as i held the hawkowl the redpolls would flutter beside my hand, i've never witnessed that before!
Last night I was thinking why not try for Boreal Owls just to see if anything was floating around, the night was perfect at -10 C and no wind with clear skies. I setup one mist net under a stand of White Spruce trees that were 60+ feet tall to block out the moonlight right beside Leddy Lake which is 15 mins north of Peace River. First net check produced this SY BOOW.
I left the BOOW call on for another hour with no more birds caught so I decided to switch the call to Saw-whets and the next net check produced 2 Saw-whets, both SY birds which I thought was very strange. Either these birds have stayed up here all winter or else they are coming through now which to me would seem early. The molt of all three of these birds were even right across the wing so i'm thinking young from last summer.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Few More Owls
Jan.22/12
Went out today to see if there were any new Owls around, did a tour through my northern route to search for Great Grays and Hawkowls, I couldn't find any Great Grays, they seem to be extremely scarce this winter. I did find this juvy Northern Shrike.
Found a Northern Hawk Owl close to Peace River, turned out to be a SY bird with an unusual old wing injury.
Close up
Most of the Snowy Owls have moved out of Peace Region, my guess is maybe to Grande Prairie area or even further south, totals now are 36 SNOW's banded and 4 retraps of my own birds. Here's a couple of new ones.
An ASY Male SNOW
An SY female
This has been an incredible winter, lets hope it continues!
Went out today to see if there were any new Owls around, did a tour through my northern route to search for Great Grays and Hawkowls, I couldn't find any Great Grays, they seem to be extremely scarce this winter. I did find this juvy Northern Shrike.
Found a Northern Hawk Owl close to Peace River, turned out to be a SY bird with an unusual old wing injury.
Close up
Most of the Snowy Owls have moved out of Peace Region, my guess is maybe to Grande Prairie area or even further south, totals now are 36 SNOW's banded and 4 retraps of my own birds. Here's a couple of new ones.
An ASY Male SNOW
An SY female
This has been an incredible winter, lets hope it continues!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
2012 Year of the Snowy Owl
Jan.3rd 2012
Since last post i've been able to capture and band alot more Snowy Owls around Peace Country. Totals to date are 28 newly banded Snowies and 3 retraps from birds I banded a few weeks ago. I caught a HY(hatch year Male) from Dec.18 which is now a SY(second year) bird with the turning of the calendar year, it was retrapped 17 kms further south so these owls are still on the move if they haven't found a decent spot to maintain territory which is typical with young male Snowy Owls. The other was one I caught yesterday which was retrapped 2 kms east of its original banding location and after I investigated its old site I could clearly tell why, there were 2 large females hunting his old territory so they kicked him out which is also typical with females being more aggressive for territory.
HY Male
Here is a large female where he was banded back in December.
The majority of Snowies that have been banded have been HY females, here is one from a couple of weeks ago.
Most of these owls are in decent condition but I have come across 2 that I was concerned about. I have been feeding them voles that I have trapped just to give them some needed energy.
I'm hoping to band as many Snowies as possible before they depart Peace Region in March or April so that next winter i'll hear about one of these owls turning up somewhere else in the country or if I get lucky and retrap one of my own birds to determine whether or not they do come back to this place.
Since last post i've been able to capture and band alot more Snowy Owls around Peace Country. Totals to date are 28 newly banded Snowies and 3 retraps from birds I banded a few weeks ago. I caught a HY(hatch year Male) from Dec.18 which is now a SY(second year) bird with the turning of the calendar year, it was retrapped 17 kms further south so these owls are still on the move if they haven't found a decent spot to maintain territory which is typical with young male Snowy Owls. The other was one I caught yesterday which was retrapped 2 kms east of its original banding location and after I investigated its old site I could clearly tell why, there were 2 large females hunting his old territory so they kicked him out which is also typical with females being more aggressive for territory.
Here is a large female where he was banded back in December.
The majority of Snowies that have been banded have been HY females, here is one from a couple of weeks ago.
Most of these owls are in decent condition but I have come across 2 that I was concerned about. I have been feeding them voles that I have trapped just to give them some needed energy.
I'm hoping to band as many Snowies as possible before they depart Peace Region in March or April so that next winter i'll hear about one of these owls turning up somewhere else in the country or if I get lucky and retrap one of my own birds to determine whether or not they do come back to this place.
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