It doesnt have anything to do with birding in Iowa, but perhaps birding BY Iowans. I just have to share a few of the details of our fall trip.
We have looked for boreal owls in Sax-Zim bog in Minnesota and a couple other places, to no avail. They are notoriously secretive and hard to find. With that in mind, I started looking for a place that bands boreal owls and located the Hilliardton Marsh in north Ontario. They started a program of banding northern saw-whets several years ago and ended up catching a few boreals as well. This led to establishing the boreal banding effort, which is really gearing up now. Corresponding with the project coordinator, Bruce Murphy, I learned about their program. We didnt visit last year because Bruce said theres a 4-year cycle to peak numbers of migrating boreals, with 2008 & 2012 being the peaks. But there seems to be a trend emerging of a lower peak the year after peak migration. Still in the hypothesis stage, I believe. So the first week in October, we visited Hilliardton Marsh and saw as many boreal owls being banded as we could have hoped for! Id recommend checking out the Web site: www.themarsh.ca For about 6 weeks during the fall Bruce bands owls til the wee hours and then teaches environmental education classes for the local school district during the day! Yikes! I certainly admire his dedication. The weather was beautiful, warmer than Iowa! Go figure. There was a quiet little township park a couple miles away where we were able to camp and sleep during the day. Timing is everything the colors were at their absolute peak. The people we met were warm and hospitable and we had a wonderful time. Karen Schweitzer Tom Vujovich Des Moines --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
