Every fall, Rushton Woods Preserve is filled with flashes of color as migrating birds make their way to the tropics. Warblers, thrushes, kinglets, and more stop over at Rushton, feasting on the plentiful berries and insects before continuing south. These birds delight local birders, who crowd the woods hoping to glimpse birds that only stop here a few days per year.

Hidden under the cover of night is an equally amazing migration: that of the Northern Saw-whet Owl. Northern Saw-whet Owls are tiny, just larger than a robin, but they fly hundreds of miles each year. They breed and spend their summers in the boreal forests of Canada and the northern US, hunting mice, voles, and other small rodents. However, they are too small to break through snow and ice to catch prey, forcing them south as winter sets in.

These owls are highly elusive, remaining still and hidden during the day and emerging to hunt only at night. While it is believed that they spend their winters in the mid-Atlantic and southern US, much remains unknown about their migration and winter habitats. Their movements are complex and the number of owls that migrate tends to reflect the abundance and availability of prey. The more prey available during the breeding season, the more fledglings survive to migrate south.

In 2010, we began banding owls at Rushton Woods Banding Station, joining a network of over 100 owl banding stations across North America known as Project Owlnet ( projectowlnet.org ), established in 1994 to study when, where, and how these owls migrate. Using the classic "too-too-too" call of a Northern Saw-whet Owl, owls are lured into banding stations. When an owl is captured, it is fitted with a small metal band with a unique nine-digit code. A few measurements are taken, and the owl is then released to continue its migration.

Occasionally, and to the great excitement of any bird bander involved, owls that were already banded are recaptured at a different banding station. These recaptures are vital to understanding owl migration.

At Rushton Woods Banding Station, 1,119 Northern Saw-whet Owls have been captured since 2010. Of these owls, 81 have been captured at 52 other banding stations, ranging from Virginia to southern Canada.

Please note: These lines represent straight line distances between banding stations where owls were caught. They do not necessarily represent the flight paths that the owls took.