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Please join us for our monthly chapter meeting on Monday, April 13, 2026, at 7:00 PM when Kate Stone will present her talk: Northern Saw-whet Owl Migratory Movements and Activity Patterns.Northern Saw-whet Owls are the most-banded owl species in forested areas of North America, particularly during migration. Despite this status, we know relatively little about their movement paths and travel rates. Their small size has limited the application of precise tracking methods used for larger raptors. Kate will share the results of a study completed over two autumns when she used aerial and ground-based telemetry to track the movements of 65 owls as they traveled through the Bitterroot Valley. How far did owls travel in one night? How many stopped over between migratory movements? What kind of roosts did they use?
Kate will also share preliminary results using the Motus Wildlife Tracking System and “nanotags” to evaluate both the larger migratory movements saw-whet owls make, and the small-scale patterns of activity used during migration and over winter. Scientists at MPG Ranch have deployed over 200 nanotags on saw-whet owls and are currently analyzing data related to foraging time, stopover behavior, and travel rates.
Kate Stone directs the bird research program for MPG Ranch, a private conservation property in the Bitterroot Valley. She works with several small owls, Lewis’s Woodpeckers, and nightjars. She also serves on the Ravalli County Open Lands Board. Most of her professional and personal work centers on studying the importance of private lands to wildlife conservation.
Following Kate’s presentation, PL Wright Award recipients Bella Adams and Lauren Hatch will give presentations about their research. Lauren’s presentation is entitled: Bad brome-ance: Understanding Associations Between Planted Grasslands and Grasslands Birds to Inform Conservation in the Northern Great Plains. Bella’s presentation is entitled: Reproductive Tradeoffs in Black Brant Geese: Clutch Size vs Egg Volume as a Function of Female Age and Environmental Condition.
The meeting will be held in Room 110 in the Interdisciplinary Sciences Building (ISB) on the University of Montana campus. The building lies on the south end of campus on Beckwith Avenue between Maurice and Mansfield avenues. You also have the option of watching the meeting over Zoom at this link:
https://umontana.zoom.us/j/96634757552
Meeting ID: 966 3475 7552
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https://umontana.zoom.us/meetings/96634757552/invitations?signature=JAqi3BFsyTljCeztzAFyWAN9P_VQqEcYl07URRg0JO0
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University of Montana, 1060 Mansfield Ave, Missoula, MT 59812, United States
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