FYI. I thought I would throw this out to you for consideration - trying to age the birds by sight may be useful, yet it sounds rather difficult.
Mark Alt=20 ----- Original Message -----=20 From: "Barb Beck" <[email protected]> To: "Rich Peet" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 31, 2004 9:27 AM Subject: Re: Owls > Hearing about what you have has been driving the main Hawk and GG Owl=20 > bander around here CRAZY. He would go down to band but has not got a=20 > permit for your side of the border. > > BTW are they first year birds or older. > > In case you have not been around a banding nut. Hawk Owls can be aged > easily as first year vs older by the white on the tips of their tails. > Older owls have rounded tips on the tail feathers while the first year > birds have pointed tips. This makes the white on the end of the tail into=20 > a chevron for the kids and a crescent for the older birds > > With the GGOW all of the flight feathers on the first year bird will be=20 > the same color and have the same liight tips, those on the older bird do=20 > not show as much of a white tip. Beware they only molt very few feathers=20 > each year in their wings - taking up to 5 years to get rid of all of the=20 > juv feathers. > Have fun. It has turned COLD here. Actually can get colder but the older=20 > I get the less tolerant I am of the cold. > > Barb > > Rich Peet wrote: > >>I thought I would just give a thank you for loaning Minnesota your >>owls from Canada this winter. >> >>In northern MN the trees are almost dripping with Northern Hawk Owls >>and Great Grays. >> >>So if you didn't get many during the cbc survey don't worry we will >>send them back to you in good health shortly. >> >>Rich Peet >> >> >> >>=20
