The Saga Of The Carden Alvar Northern Hawk Owl Posted on February 17, 2011 at 12:13:59 PM by Bob Bowles
I posted that the Northern Hawk Owl that we have been watching at Carden since January 2, 2011 was found dead on the side of the road near where it has been observed hunting by several birders on the morning of Monday, February 14, 2011. I had posted that I knew the owl had been banded but when I observed the dead owl on Monday afternoon there were no bands on either legs and no marks where a band had been. Either we had two birds or the owl removed the band???
The owl was banded on its left leg on Sunday, January 30th, a male SY bird behind the Warren farm. The dead owl was found less than 1 km east of this location with no bands. The bander informed me that northern hawk owls take a shorter height band of a strong alloy compared to the normal butt-end bands. He told me that there is no way the bird could have removed the band. So for two days I have been thinking about this situation. I know of only 5 Northern Hawk Owls in Southern Ontario this winter with no location even close to the Carden Alvar site so the odds of a second bird showing up in the same location as the first bird would be very high odds.
Today, I received a call from the local resident who found the dead hawk owl on Monday morning. He passes the site every day several times and has been watching the hawk owl all winter. He told me today that he observed the hawk owl in its usual location on top of a tree just up the road from where he found the dead hawk owl. Two hawk owls in the same location within one km of each other when there are few hawk owls in the area.
I told him that with those odds that he should stop in at Casino Rama which he also passes every day since the odds of winning big would be far greater than finding two different Northern Hawk Owl within 1 km of each other this winter.
So the Northern Hawk Owl can still be seen at its usual location just south of Road 6 and 46 junction just east of Orillia near Lake Dalrymple.