Raptor bander Jared Clarke of Regina gave a presentation during the Weyburn Nature Society's annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Clarke talked about the Cooper's Hawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl projects which he is currently work on.

The Cooper's Hawk project is tracking adult hawks to see whether they return to the same site each year to breed and where the young end up nesting in later years, mainly in the Regina area.

In this project, Clarke bands the Cooper's Hawks with special "red alpha-numeric bands that can be read by anyone with binoculars or a spotting scope." Also located on the band is a single number over a letter repeated three times around the band and the digits are divided horizontally by a silver line.

Clarke's second project was observing the fall migration of the Northern Saw-whet Owl at his banding station near Edenwold. He is part of a network of banders in the province and in North America who track this bird.

The project was started in Saskatchewan by banders Marten Stoffel and Dan Zazelenchuk. Clarke has been able capture 140 owls, four of which were previously banded, in 24 nights and 115 hours.

"These four came from as far away as Slave Lake, Alta., which is north of Edmonton," Clarke said. "A very impressive journey for the smallest owl in Saskatchewan."

Clarke also had with him a Great Horned Owl named Tyke. He was brought to Clarke injured and never recovered properly. Tyke has a crooked wing and can't fly properly, thus he could not be put back into the wild, so Clarke kept Tyke.

"I have never seen anything like it," said co-vice president Myrt Thorson. "They are beautiful big birds."

Members started planning for upcoming guest speakers and field trips as well. Some of the suggestions brought up include Estevan and Roche Percee. A new location suggested was to visit the bird lookout program in Chaplin.

The Nature Society also elected their new executive, which consists of president Norm Flaten, co-vice president Ross Douglas, co-vice president Myrt Thorson, secretary Val Thomas and treasurer Elma McCormick.