Slow Start to Spring

March.31 2011

Springtime is one of my favorite seasons but so far this year in Saskatchewan it has been hard for Old Man Winter to leave us and let the warmer temps settle in. I began calling for Saw-whet Owls at the start of March in hopes of figuring out if any of the owls from the fall had stayed close to home for the cold winter months. On March 15th I was not expecting to catch 3 of my owls from the previous fall over the course of a 2 hr evening. Now either these birds stayed close to my banding site or I was just lucky enough to catch 3 previously banded Saw-whets that were coming back through on their way North again, my guess is that they stayed close to here.

Here is one of them


On March 29th I was out again and with temps at +1C and a slight southerly breeze I decided to try my luck. There was still alot of snow cover but I had a nice clear net lane free from snow and deer except for 2 Ruffed Grouse that almost flew into the net! After half and hour the first owl was caught, a nice small SY male caught around 21:40 and after 10 more mins the larger owl in hand on the left was caught. Turned out to be an SY female and both were above average weight.

Yesterday was above freezing and I wanted to see if I could find any Red-tailed Hawks to road trap. I came across 6 RTHA's and a single Rough-legged Hawk and this Gyrfalcon. The interesting thing about this GYRF is that it was a juvenile and it was banded already. Now that I know there was a Juvy GYRF banded southeast of Tessier where I found this bird the chances are pretty good that it is the same bird. So it could be coincidence that this bird is still floating around the countryside but the chances are even better that it is on it's way back north travelling from Outlook Sk so far to Tessier Sk in an NW direction. Its anyones guess but it sure is nice to see that this bird has made it through it's first winter!

Juvy Gyrfalcon

3 Snows and a Prairie

Feb.18th 2011

Over the past couple months Snowy Owls have been extremely hard to find in the Saskatoon area. The last one I've banded was back in December. I decided to head out west and search around for whatever I could find, the weather was ideal with bright sunny skies and a light breeze, the temperature was sitting at -30C.

I found 4 Snowies in total, caught 3 of them and a Prairie Falcon. This is the best luck i've ever had in a single day. I've caught 2 SNOWs in a day a few times but never 3. All owls were adult females. Since joining the SNOWY OWL Working Group my views have changed and data has been brought forward to disprove facts that bilogists once thought were true.

One of these theories was that ornithologists and birders could look at a Snowy Owl and tell what age the bird was. This is not at all true when it comes to dark individuals. We thought that darker birds were indeed young birds from the summer's breeding season. We have proven this to not be true. We have caught birds that were black in color and they have been adult females.The vast majority of Snowy Owls turn lighter in color but they can also turn darker in color both male and female. It is something we keep track of as we band more and more birds, we photograph and record molt patterns to see how much they change throughout their lifetime.

ASY Female SNOW

ASY Female SNOW

ASY Female SNOW

SY PRFA

Mystery Gyrfalcon

Feb.15th 2011

Went out this afternoon after getting a pigeon from my sister's place. Was heading back from Blaine Lake using back roads to Rosthern then to Hague when I came across this Gyr. It took off from a power pole before I could get setup and swooped down and grabbed a small bird. I was guessing maybe a Horned Lark but I didn't get close enough to see what she was eating. She landed on a fencepost and continued eating while I fumbled around trying to get the pigeon into the trap. She took off again as I laid the trap down so I picked it up and cursed in disgust as she flew away.

I decided to head in the direction she was headed and after almost an hour found her again sitting on a dairy farm silo. I jumped out again to drop the trap but she took off east again toward the river. I was extremely dissapointed thinking she had gotten away so I headed for home. I was following a power line towards the river and saw a large bird sitting at the very top of a dead poplar like a Northern Hawk Owl would. On further investigation with my binos it was indeed the Gyr yet again!

I tossed the trap down and within a few seconds she came in hard and low. Nailed the trap and landed beside it. Walked up and was caught by 6 nooses. The best part of this capture isn't that its the 3rd Gyrfalcon I've caught this year, it's the fact she was wearing a band. I sent in the information to the banding office and wait to hear where she was originally banded.

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.