It has been quite sometime since my last post,
First new bird of 2013 was this beautiful Great Gray Owl, it has been a long time since i've banded one.
I'm looking for a site to start baiting Snow Buntings and I got lucky when I my neighbor told me about a grain pile across the field. There were close to 500-600 snow buntings feeding there so I setup my bownet and caught some.
Adult male Snow Bunting
There seems to be no Northern Hawkowls around this winter, I have only seen 2 on my travels and caught both in the new year.
Adult Snowy Owls have finally arrived, they are hungry this year so far and very easy to catch. I took a drive south to Falher where I caught most of my Snowy Owls last season, there was an owl perched on a transformer pole just at dusk so I setup for it and caught it. This is my first ever retrap of a Snowy Owl banded in a previous year. Here is how much she changed color.
Female Snowy 2012 molt
Retrapped Snowy Owl 2013
Went out this past weekend and caught a couple more Snowy Owls and this juvenile male Gyrfalcon, this has been a remarkable winter, I've never seen so many Gyrfalcons.
Gyrfalcon
If your looking for more frequent updates just go to Facebook and like Peace Region Raptor Study.
