02-03-2025
Afield: Volunteers drawn to PA saw-whet owl banding stations appreciate small, cute raptor
Early last October, I was fortunate enough to spend an evening, along with a few other birders, with John Fedak at his saw-whet owl banding station near the Kinzua Dam in the Allegheny National Forest. I was in the area to participate in the four-day Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology's Warren County Birding Spotlight.
As it was just getting dark at about 7:20, I crossed an arm of the Allegheny Reservoir on Route 59 and met up with Fedak and his helper John McKay. They had a campfire going and had just finished setting up eight mist nets and two audio players, constantly broadcasting a recorded call of a male saw-whet owl at high volume. The call was to draw in migrating owls – the mist nets are so fine that the owls can't detect them.
Measuring just a little over seven inches tall and weighing about as much as a robin, the northern saw-whet owl is the smallest nocturnal raptor in eastern North America. These owls have a wide range and nest in southern Canada, south along the Rocky Mountains and south in the Appalachian Mountains into Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.
Saw-whets prefer evergreen forests with thick understory growing at higher elevations. In Pennsylvania, that usually means hemlock forests thick with rhododendron and/or mountain laurel. Surveys conducted for the first Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania Atlas (1983-89) found saw-whets in only 2% of the state's survey blocks. So, it was no surprise that 35 years ago, saw-whet owls were being considered as a candidate for Pennsylvania's threatened species list. Science changed that.
Project Owlnet, the brainchild of Dave Brinkler, a biologist with Maryland's Natural Heritage program, began in 1994. Project Owlnet has since grown to be a network of dozens of independently run migratory banding stations across North America. They follow a standardized protocol to track the migratory movements of northern saw-whet owls. Stations are run by volunteers such as Fedak and National Aviary biologist Bob Mulvihill, who manages a station. Scott Weidensaul coordinates efforts in Pennsylvania.
Targeted owl surveys carried out for the second Atlas (2004-09) found saw-whets in 6% of the blocks. This demonstrated that this tiny owl's breeding presence in Pennsylvania is likely more common in ideal habitat than previously thought.
According to Weidensaul, this and other Owlnet research conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s quickly demonstrated that saw-whet owls were not rare, just rarely seen.
The fall-migration saw-whet owl monitoring stations coordinated by Project Owlnet now number about 100 across the United States and southern Canada. According to Mulvihill, who manages a station in Sewickley Heights Borough Park, just west of Pittsburgh, 14 of those stations are in Pennsylvania.
Well, I hoped my chance to see a saw-whet owl would come about that October night. I realize that such birding experiences are hit or miss, but I had never seen a saw-whet owl, so I was hoping for a successful night with Fedak. The campfire took the chill out of the night air as the male owl call was broadcast into the dark night. Fedak likes to check the mist nets every 45 minutes to an hour. The first check revealed nothing and ditto the second.
We were well into our third wait period when the 'Who, who, who-cooks-for-you?' call of a barred owl was heard close to our position. Barred owls are known predators of both screech and saw-whet owls. Because of that, Fedak directed that we do a quick check of the nets to avoid the chance of a barred owl attacking a saw-whet trapped in a net. Again, we had no saw-whets and the barred owl moved on.
The next check was more exciting. Fedak and I encountered a trapped owl in one of the nets on the south side of Rte. 59. I held the light as Fedak carefully untangled the tiny owl from the net, its bright yellow eyes peering up at us. Fedak placed the owl in a small cloth bag and I carried it back to the banding station at the campfire. McKay also returned with a saw-whet from the north side. These were owls number 13 and 14 of the year for Fedak.
The owls were fitted with a tiny, numbered leg band, sexed, weighed and evaluated for overall health. Fedak demonstrated how an ultra-violet light was used to age the owls.
Saw-whet wing feathers contain a pigment called porphyrin, which glows pink under UV light. New feathers glow more brightly than older feathers. Due to the owl's molt pattern, they can be aged. This owl glowed uniformly pink, indicating that it was a first-year owl. The owl was placed on a nearby branch and soon thereafter flew off into the night.
After putting in five to ten hours on most nights from late September until mid-November, Fedak ended up with a record 102 owls captured, banded and released. Mulvihill also ended up with a record — 62 owls for his Pittsburgh area station. Fedak has been operating his station for 13 years — thousands of hours of volunteer effort.
Mulvihill started in 2013, about the same time as Fedak.
'I knew almost nothing about saw-whet migration when we started the station at Sewickley Heights, and I even doubted that owls migrated that close to the concrete bubble of Pittsburgh,' Mulvihill said. 'A friend and I worked the station for six hours a night, over 11 nights, and caught no owls. I'm not sure what I would have done if we hadn't captured a saw-whet on the 12th night.'
Now, a dozen years later, that one owl has turned into 400 for Mulvihill. Saw-whets are popular. Some nights he attracts 40 to 50 human onlookers at his station. That is a far cry from what I experienced at Fedak's Allegheny National Forest station.
'Saw-whet owls are pleasant to work with and just so damn cute,' Mulvihill shared. 'I doubt that we would have as many volunteers if they were nasty or excreted on handlers like screech owls do.'
Much has been learned about the fall migration of saw-whets since the start of Project Owlnet, but much more is yet to be revealed. Mulvihill discovered that some saw-whets even winter in his area. Fedak had one owl that moved from West Virginia to his station during the fall — seemingly flying the 'wrong' direction. At Weidensaul's eastern Pennsylvania station, an owl was captured that was over 14 years old.
Based on my limited experience, it is easy to see why volunteers get hooked on studying saw-whet owls. I am glad that more will be learned in the future as dedicated volunteers spend hours laboring to study these cute little birds.
Mark Nale, who lives in the Bald Eagle Valley, is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and can be reached at MarkAngler@ .
