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May 8, 2007 - This evening was chosen by Bernard Forsythe for BANDING his three nestling BARRED OWLS in his back-yard nest-box on Wolfville Ridge. The local grapevine resulted in about 40 people and 15 cars there for the event. After a brief introduction about the owls, he donned his hard-hat with facial shield and climbed his ladder with a cardboard box. When he lifted the lid off the nest-box, one of the adult owls (female?) swooped at him several times and hit him at least once in the head -- I may have gotten that on my camera -- and one adult gave a quavering call just once. Then the two adults, with the female clearly larger than the male, chose perches adjacent to each other on bare limbs of a hardwood tree. Bernard mentioned that the oldest nestling owlet, now about three weeks old, is six days older than the youngest -- this reflects the laying intervals of the eggs, since the female begins incubating when the first egg is laid. Subsequent eggs come at about two-day intervals. One of the baby owls managed to puncture Bernardıs firm but gentle hand during the handling for banding. The children present seemed to enjoy Bernardıs bleeding. Also, in the cardboard box for transporting the owlets, one of the larger babies laid on its back for a long time, showing its weapons, i.e. talons. About two weeks ago the adult owls had accumulated lots of surplus prey items, mostly meadow voles (up to 30 at once, mostly beheaded) plus goldfinch, song sparrow, etc., in the nest-box with the youngsters. But tonight all the surplus items were gone -- just imagine how many prey items are devoured per day now. About 8-10 CROWS put on a bit of a show mobbing the adult owls during and after the banding operation. Bernard told us a few more updates on BARRED OWLS: (1) including his back-yard owls, he is monitoring 12 occupied barred owl boxes, and clutches of eggs this year were large (3-4 eggs often) and very early, started at about March 20; (2) in a nest-box near White Rock he found a dead adult-plumaged smallish (probably male) SHARP-SHINNED HAWK (this was a first for Bernard) -- he wonders if the hawk was territorial and badgering the owl before it was killed?; and (3) in that same White Rock box, he had a female that wouldnıt leave the box, so he reached under her to find out what she was brooding, and he felt a BAND on its leg -- the band was his own, having been put on the owl eight years previously in 1998 on Melanson Mountain, 8 km. away in a straight-line measurement. This evening and the whole day before were so warm that there were quite a number of hungry female MOSQUITOES about and biting. Also we saw blooming MAYFLOWERS and leaves of transplanted ?DOWNY RATTLESNAKE-PLANTAIN ORCHIDS on his forest-floor. -------------------- Cheers from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204
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