Catching owls again
Almost all around Finland owl-ringers had caught good numbers of Tengmalm’s Owls during the last week or two. Even in Kesälahti one of our friends had caught almost 10 owls per best nights. So last week we went one evening to Tarvaslampi to Hanna’s parents and built up the mist-net and prepared to catch some owls. Even thought the weather was very good, we didn’t catch any owls. Only one Tengmalm’s Owl was calling some times close to sauna where we were cooling down after sauna.
Then the autumn came with rains and winds and only on the 20th of September was the next good evening. When the sun was setting we started with Pygmy Owl tape and played it for more than an hour but no owls were seen or heard. When it was completely dark, we changed to Tengmalm’s Owl tape and very soon we head an owl calling. We checked the net every half an hour but again after sauna we just heard the owl calling. Then on the next check it finally had flight to the net.
This big 2nd calendar year female Tengmalm’s Owl was ringed, measured, weighted and of course photographed before we relieved it to the back-yard. At midnight we stopped and left to home to sleep.
On the 21st evening we were again in Tarvaslampi. Harri Partanen joined us too. Unfortunately no owls were observed at all and at midnight we gave up again.
And there we were again on the 22nd of September. The weather was optimal and soon there was the first owl calling close to the net. And before 11 p.m. it was hanging on the mist-net. This Tengmalm’s Owl was small 2nd calendar year male. When we were relieving this bird there was another bird calling close to the net again, but this bird wasn’t caught.
Hopefully we have good weather soon again. Tomorrow it rains…
J.A.