The Something Wild team donned headlamps recently and trekked into the dark night of the Forest Society’s Black Mountain Forest in Sutton.
The team headed to the Black Mountain Banding Station to learn about the northern saw-whet owl, a rarely seen nocturnal predator, to find out how researchers are uncovering more about its migration patterns and habitat needs through careful banding work.
“We really don't know all that much about the natural history of these little owls,” says biologist and lead bander Lindsay Herlihy, who founded the Black Mountain Banding Station.
Bird banding is one of the most widely used strategies for scientists to study populations of wild birds, and in late October, this banding station is collecting data as part of a continent wide-effort, coordinated by Project Owlnet, to learn more about the northern saw-whet.
According to NH Audubon, the northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) is the smallest of its family in New Hampshire, weighing in at less than half an ounce (a little bigger than a robin). It is also the only one of the state’s breeding owls to migrate. Although saw-whets are throughout the state year-round, some leave in the fall for southern regions while others arrive from the boreal forests of Canada.
While abundant in the state, they are difficult to survey. “Their instinct when they are approached by anything under almost any circumstance is to freeze,” says Herlihy. “And their plumage camouflages them so well in the dense conifer vegetation that they prefer that even if you are directly underneath them, or even if they are at your eye level just a few feet away, you might not see them.”
Dave Anderson of the Forest Society and Something Wild host explains the name: “In a logging camp, there was somebody who was a saw-whet, who kept all the saws sharp. They thought that this bird sounded like the sharpening of a saw. Hence the name."
“It's amazing to be out here in their habitat, under the starry sky, and to think about the challenges that they're facing,” says NH Audubon’s Grace McCulloch.
“You typically wouldn't think about an owl being a predator for another owl. And yet, barred owls are a huge predator for northern saw whet owls. So they're out here hunting at night. But they've also got to think about what's around them and what kind of danger is lurking in the darkness.”
On this night, fifteen owls were banded and released, and one previously banded owl was recaptured—a record night for Black Mountain Banding station.
All banding, marking, and sampling is conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory.
Something Wild is a partnership between NH Audubon, the Forest Society, and NHPR.
