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CVWO joins the Virginia Saw-whet Owl Consortium

November 24, 2008
CVWO joins the Virginia Saw-whet Owl Consortium

Northern Saw-whet Owl © Julie Kacmarcik

IN 2007 CVWO joined a consortium of Northern Saw-whet Owl banding stations in Virginia under the permit of master bander and CVWO Vice-President, Dr. Bob Reilly. CVWO provided equipment support to stations at First Landing State Park, at Shenandoah River State Park, and at the McCown site in Cumberland County.  The consortium also includes the Powhatan Wildlife Management Area and Timber Creek stations in Powhatan County, a site in Goochland County, the station at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Center in Charles City County (run in partnership with the VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and VCU) and a new station at the Dutch Gap Conservation Area in Chesterfield County. The Shenandoah River SP and Dutch Gap Conservation Area stations did not operate in 2007. 

The six consortium stations operating in Fall 2007 combined to band 173 new saw-whets and captured a remarkable 21 owls that had been banded previously at stations north of Virginia, from Maryland to Ontario.  During the winter of 2007-2008 from late December through mid-Februrary, the Rice Center, Timber Creek, Powhatan WMA, and Cumberland stations captured an additional 41 owls.  These were the first confirmed winter records of this species in central Virginia from the western coastal plain through the piedmont. These records establish the previously unrecognized role of this central Virginia habitat in the winter ecology of this species.
    The station at Shenandoah River State Park conducted late winter/spring banding from February 15-March 31, 2008.  While spring migration records for this species are relatively scarce throughout the east, an impressive 112 owls were captured during this period, clearly establishing for the first time the upper Shenandoah Valley as a significant spring migration corridor for the Northern Saw-whet Owl.  All eight stations in the consortium are in operation for the Fall of 2008. The eight consortium stations, along with the three Eastern Shore stations operated by the Center for Conservation Biology, the Highland Retreat Camp station in Rockingham County, and the new Seven Islands station in Rappahannock County are all members of the North American research and monitoring network, Project Owlnet.