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Subject:

Lambs Knoll Owl Banding Station

From:

"David F. Brinker"

Reply-To:

David F. Brinker

Date:

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 20:32:40 -0400

Greetings MD Osprey readers,

 

It's that time of year again; over the weekend my 8-year old daughter, a volunteer, and I were down on Assateague Island opening up the owl banding station.  I presume that many of you have heard of this effort to band migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls as over the years I have spoken to a number of Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS) chapters and other environmental groups on the subject.  This will be our 16th year of operation on Assateague and through 2005 we have banded over 1,250 Northern Saw-whet Owls there during autumn migration.  The Assateague station is part of a coordinated group that includes 4 other stations operated by subpermittees of mine in Maryland and West Virginia.  Collectively our group of 5 banding stations has banded just over 6,400 saw-whet owls since I first started netting Northern Saw-whet Owls in Maryland at Finzel Swamp in 1986.

 

Opening the banding station at Assateague kept me away from home for a few days and I am just now catching up on my e-mail.  As I was reading MD OSPREY I noticed a couple of e-mails that related to Lambs Knoll, one of the MD-WV owl banding stations mentioned above.  In one e-mail a casual reference was made to the fact that Steve Huy and I are looking for donations to build a banding shed at Lambs Knoll.  I'd like to take this opportunity to offer some details and to clarify the present situation at Lambs Knoll.

 

First a little additional background, my work on migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls blossomed into an effort that I call Project Owlnet in the mid 1990's.  This was initially simply an effort to promote the banding of migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls.  The concept has matured and there are a now number of justifications for the effort that run from estimating regional and/or continental population trends, to basic understanding of the migration patterns of these captivating little owls.  To keep this mail from getting too long I will not expand on all of that here.  If you would like to learn more about Project Owlnet please go to www.ProjectOwlnet.org or contact me directly.

 

Steve Huy is Project Owlnet's web master and as such has been instrumental in Project Owlnet's growth and success.  Steve is also one of my subpermittees and he operates the Lambs Knoll Owl Banding station.  He has operated the Lambs Knoll station since 1996 and has banded over 1,340 Northern Saw-whet Owls there through 2005.  Lambs Knoll is one of the two most productive owl banding stations in Maryland.  Steve frequently educates/entertains groups at Lambs Knoll each autumn and a number of MD Osprey readers and MOS members have visited the station.

 

Lambs Knoll is a 1,758' peak on the Frederick-Washington County line near Boonsboro, MD that is owned by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and managed as part of South Mountain Recreation Area.  Steve operates the banding station at Lambs Knoll under an existing long-term special use agreement with the DNR.  From 1999 through 2005, Steve's "shelter" was a tiny (6'x6') cold-war era concrete bunker with 1 foot thick walls.  This bunker was formerly part of the DNR radio communications network, but had long since been abandoned when Steve started using it.  It barely offered him shelter from the elements on top of the mountain.  Over the past year the antiquated DNR communications facility at Lambs Knoll was replaced with a modern facility.  As part of reconstruction the DNR removed the old concrete bunker.  It really did have to go!  In recognition of the contribution to conservation and science that accrues from the Lambs Knoll Northern Saw-whet Owl banding effort, the DNR left sufficient space for a replacement building.  However, DNR could not fund a replacement building.

 

This has left Steve with a productive, but now very exposed and uncomfortable, location to net migrant Northern Saw-whet Owls.  Steve and I are trying to solve this problem with a 12'x12' shed (materials cost $1,800-$2,000).  We have been preparing to seek donations of materials to build the shed.  I was almost ready to start approaching potential donors when this weekend's e-mails let that cat, or should I say owl, out of the bag.

 

So here are the specifics.  Because the shed will be located on DNR property I have approval to accept tax deductible donations to DNR's Natural Heritage Program (NHP) for the purpose of building the banding shed on Lambs Knoll.  Originally I expected donations to be materials with Steve and I building the shed on site.  The shed will belong to DNR's NHP and Steve's long-term use agreement with the DNR will be modified to include use of the shed for his banding station.

 

To my surprise the e-mails over the weekend resulted in a couple of monetary donation offers.  I had not anticipated this at all and was not prepared for it.  I had intended to quietly approach individual businesses and like sources for donation of materials.  I might be able to use monetary donations to purchase materials, but I will have to check on that angle.  However, since the needs of the Lambs Knoll Banding Station have leaked out to MD Osprey members, I thought I owed the members of the list some details and clarification.  And because we are somewhat desperate at Lambs Knoll, we really don't want to turn down any serious offers of help!

 

So if MD Osprey members have suggestions of places to approach for donations or other helpful ideas please contact me directly - NOT via the MD Osprey list server.  And what the heck, if you happen to have an unused gift card lying around to a store that sells building supplies and  you don't know what to do with it, I might have a good suggestion.

 

Thanks all for your patience with this long e-mail!

 

Best regards,

 

David F. Brinker
Project Owlnet
1200 Frederick Rd.
Catonsville, Maryland 21228



Web: http://www.ProjectOwlnet.org
E-mail: 



Ph. 410-744-3246 (home) 
Ph. 410-744-8939 (office)



Assateague Island Banding Station
38 09' 53" N    75 10' 23" W