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Saw-whet Owl Research
Each autumn, Scott Weidensaul coordinates a major research effort under the auspices of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art to learn more about the movements and ecology of the northern saw-whet owl, the smallest owl in the East and one of the most enigmatic birds in North America.
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Weidensaul oversees an all-volunteer research crew of 18 banders and 85 assistants, working at three sites in the mountains of eastern and southcentral Pennsylvania every night from the beginning of October until Thanksgiving. Each evening at dusk, crew members open a line of almost invisible mist nets in the woods and turn on an audiolure that broadcasts a tape recording of a male saw-whet owl's tooting advertisement call. Attracted by the call, migrating owls are lured into the nets, where they are captured and held briefly for banding and processing.
Since the project began in 1997, the Ned Smith Center crew has banded more than 5,000 saw-whet owls, with as many as 43 captured in a single evening at a single site. Each owl is weighed, fitted with a lightweight, individually numbered leg band issued by the federal Bird Banding Lab, and a series of measurements are taken. The whole process lasts only five or ten minutes, after which the owl is released unharmed.
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In an average year, the research crew will net about 500 saw-whets, of which roughly 30 will already have been banded, either earlier in the season at sites in New England or Canada, or in previous years at banding stations ranging from Virginia to Quebec and the upper Great Lakes region. Likewise, about two dozen of the crew's banded owls are reported by other banding stations across the East every fall. Such encounters help scientists map the range and migration of this little-known species. Already, the Ned Smith Center's work has shown that the Appalachian ridge system is a major migratory route for this bird.
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For more information on the saw-whet research program, visit the Ned Smith Center's website.
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Pigments in owl plumage known as porphyrins fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light. The pigment fades as the feathers age, allowing banders, in turn, to more accurately age the owl. |
The Ned Smith Center is part of Project Owlnet, a continental network of researchers investigating owl migration. Owlnet provides a wealth of information and resources for banders, and a listserve for active owl researchers.
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Beeping owls
Besides banding, Weidensaul's crew has since 2000 been using radio telemetry to learn about how migrant saw-whet owls live when they aren't actively migrating. Each fall, about half a dozen owls are fitted with tiny, 2-gram radio transmitters about the size of pencil erasers, which are attached to the owl's body using a harness of thin, elastic thread designed to fall off after several months.
The radios, while too small to permit researchers to follow the owls in flight through the mountainous terrain, do allow the crew to locate them during the day. Almost nothing is known about what kind of habitat saw-whet owls use in migration, or what sites they pick for roosting – critical information for their long-term protection and management. The main telemetry effort focuses on owls banded on South Mountain in Cumberland County, Pa., and which use the surrounding Michaux State Forest.
Seeing a saw-whet
The Ned Smith Center's banding sites are able to accommodate a limited number of small (15 people or less) groups during the fall banding season. Arrangements must be made well in advance by contacting the center.
The general public is invited to the center's annual Halloween Owls program, held each year the Saturday closest to Halloween, at the center's grounds in northern Dauphin County, Pa. During the outdoor, nighttime program, research crew members net and band migrant saw-whets, allowing participants a chance to see the owls firsthand.
There are a limited number of openings each year on the center's banding crew. Volunteers are expected to make a significant commitment of time, including preseason training and at least one night per week throughout the eight-week banding season. Good physical condition is essential, as some hiking is required. Prior experience with bird-banding is obviously welcome, but is not essential.
For more information, contact the Ned Smith Center at nedsmith@epix.net, or by calling (717) 692-0977
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