Dispersal

Dispersal of Young Barred Owls {Partially updated 15 Mar 09--still a work in progress}

Jim Mason's thesis was based on tracking young Barred Owls as they leave their natal territories. He compared the dispersal and survivorship of young owls born in the suburbs to those born in more rural areas.
In 2002 we tagged the first two young Barred Owls before they left their nest areas. One of these birds disappeared (probably died), while the other mated and hatched three young in 2004. (A raccoon killed the young.) See maps of 2002 birds.

     In 2003 we put radios on eight young--two in the country and six in the city. The two country young were still transmitting when the batteries in their radios died. All the city young were killed by cars (three) or we lost signal from them.
     In 2004 we followed 10 young birds in the suburbs and two in the country. Nine were tagged in or around their nests, while the 10th was a young bird that happened to be spotted by a neighbor as it wandered through Myers Park. This bird was trapped and outfitted with a transmitter and thus joined the study group, even though we don't know which nest it came from.
     Of these birds, one settled down in a neighboring territory and attempted, unsuccessfully, to breed in 2006. She was killed by a car before the '07 breeding season. A second bird settled down and appeared to be mated going into the '07 breeding season when the battery in the transmitter died.
     In 2005, a season that was experienced terrible reproductive output due to heavy rain, we only tagged one young bird (in Latta Park). We lost the signal from that bird not long after it began to disperse.
     In '06 we tagged two young in the country (Harrisburg). One of these was found dead in early winter and we lost the signal on the other. One young was tagged in town. The signal was lost on this bird shortly after dispersal. These lost signals mean either that the bird was hit by a car and the radio broken in the process, or the bird wandered out of the area we covered in searching for it.
     In '07 we tagged two young in Reedy Creek Nature Preserve and two at the Nature Museum in suburban Charlotte. One of the Reedy Creek young made it 14 miles from his nest to Monroe, where it was killed in by a car. The two city young have settled down. "Sterling" is over in Grier Heights, and "Chilly" has found a mate and is nesting along Brandywine somewhere
     No young were tagged in 2008.

To see where all the city young are now, click here. To see the travels of each bird, click on their links below.

The city nests where we banded young were:

Bromley (2 young) Bromley 1 and Bromley 2

Bay St. (2 young) Map "Bay St."

Ardsley, Latta Park (the Berkeley pair), the Nature Museum at Freedom Park, and Queens Rd East. The movement of the young from these four nests are combined in the "Nature Museum" map.

The Cumberland young is still hanging around home, so it doesn't have a map yet.