An Owls 3rd Eyelid
Today we caught two Northern Saw-whet Owls with wonderful WNW winds. While Photographing this owl, we happen to notice that with each picture it would use its 3rd eyelid (as if to protect itself). After looking in a few of my Ornithology Manuals – I finally learned that this eyelid is called the Nictitating membrane!! After a quick google search: answers.com I found this about the eyelid: nic·ti·tat·ing membrane (nĭk’tĭ-tā’tĭng) also nic·tat·ing membrane (nĭk’tā’tĭng) n. – A transparent inner eyelid in birds, reptiles, and some mammals that closes to protect and moisten the eye. Also called third eyelid.
FYI: Nexrad Radar shows a very strong movement of birds taking off just after sunset. Click link to see the Clip.
An unusual visitor at the banding station
The Barred Owl (Strix varia) is a year round resident who doesn’t migrate like the Northern Saw-whet Owls. They have a very large 42 inch wingspan and a very rounded head. I hear many more Barred Owls than those I get to see. Their very well known for their calls in the middle of the night which sounds like “hoo hoo ho-ho, hoo hoo ho-hoooooaw” or also known as “who cooks for you, who cooks for you all”. Bents life history series of books mentions that they are more diurnal than nocturnal but I guess that depends on the neighboring food supply.
I have had these owls in my nets before but they always seem to get out before my opportunity to band them. The banding team took no chances in giving this owl a chance to get out. This is an adult bird which I was unable to determine its sex! You can be sure that everyone at the station was extremely excited once we realized what we had just captured. As you can see they are very large in size compared to the tiny N Saw-whet Owls that we are use to handling. The moon was bright and we truly didn’t expect a saw-whet (which I should mention we also captured) yet alone a Barred!
As you can see, most of the movements of birds were mostly along the eastern side of New York and New Jersey! Althought there was some movement across all of the North East.
How to have fun when there are no Owls
I have some friends staying over at Cain Hollow for Columbus weekend and this photo was from my trip home just before opening my nets for owls. Obviously from this photo you can see the moon is very bright and almost “Full”. We are not exactly sure why but it is assumed that the reason Owl banders don’t catch many owls during full moon nights is that the Owls are able to see the nets. So, obviously we didn’t catch any owls but we made the best of the night.
The kids were very spontaneous when on camera but I think everything worked together alright. (BTW: We didn’t see the aurora but the fog almost looked as if it was really the northern lights, I took that photo from the web somewhere).
Radar showed a strong movement of birds tonight with perfect calm NE winds and clear sky!
Start of the New Season
Tonight was the start of my Northern Saw-whet Owl studies here in Allegany State Park. This is my 3rd year out collecting data and I will be continuing this season’s studies for the next 6 weeks (so expect most of my blog reports to be about owls and bird migration).
There is very little information on the migration routes of the smallest owl found in New York State. The Northern Saw-whet Owl is a very secretive bird and has been overlooked for many years now. My goal is to get a better understanding of the fall migration in Allegany State Park, NY. With bird banding, we can better understand where these migrant birds nest and where they go for the winter season.
These photos are of the first Northern Saw-whet Owl captured for the season. We call this a “hatch year” bird because it was a bird hatched earlier this summer. What was unique about this bird was that it’s late in going through its first prebasic molt (which is loosing its juvenal feathers into its first set of adult feathers). The picture above shows some juvenal feathers still in its body but its very close to looking like an adult bird. As the season progresses, I will show you ways that we identify the age of the bird (with a black light), different animals I encounter and the many other things that we can learn about these owls. I can’t wait to share with everyone how amazing these birds are.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 