TINY OWLS, BIG QUESTIONS

Northern saw-whet owls are common breeders throughout Maine, but their migratory habits and routes have been difficult to study.  They migrate at night and in complete silence, to avoid being eaten by larger predators.  Project Owlnet was established in the mid-1990s to pool and share data collected across multiple sites, in an effort to gain a better scientific understanding of saw-whet migration patterns and their annual population fluctuations. There are now mist-netting and banding locations scattered across the continent, including one at a secret Downeast Maine site established in 2015. A lot of owls have been banded in Maine since wildlife biologist Adrienne Leppold, Ph.D., first became involved with the project. She’ll present a slide show on our tiniest native owls, and describe what wildlife biologists have learned so far about these miniscule, mysterious creatures of the dark.