Today I did bird banding at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh. Bird banding consists of catching birds in mist nets--nets made for catching birds because they have pockets that the birds fly and fall into, getting tangled--and putting small aluminum or color bands on their feet. Bird banding is important because scientists collect data about each individual bird, like body fat, molt, sex, age, and this can be used to get a general idea about the characteristics of a species. Also, every bird gets an aluminum band etched with a specific number. If the same group or a different group somewhere in the US catches the bird again, the number on the band can be used to identify the individual. So, scientists use this to see a) where the bird goes and if it migrates, b) if the bird returns to one place every year, and c) how long that bird species' lifespan is.
I have been bird banding for about four years now, and I still really enjoy it and learn a lot from it. Today, I bird banded with Vanessa, John Gerwin, the ornithologist that taught me everything, and another student named Edward. We bird banded near some bird feeders so that we could hopefully get many birds in a short amount of time. This didn't happen--we caught around 8 birds in 2.5 - 3 hours, but that's how science is: unpredictable. The weather anchor for WRAL, Elizabeth Gardener, likes to do the noon weather report by the Museum of Natural Sciences, where my mentor John Gerwin works. So, she came to do the noon report at Prairie Ridge and interviewed John about bird banding. It was really cool! She's very nice, and I'm pretty sure she smiled the entire hour she was there.
The birds that were caught were: Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, European Starling (all were babies/juveniles), Carolina Chickadee, House Wren. The last two bird species were target species for this project called Neighborhood Nestwatch. It's a project that the Smithsonian Museum is doing in eight different cities around the US, and Raleigh is one of them. Different groups go around bird banding in people's yards (with their permission, of course) and putting easily identifiable color bands on the target species. So it was nice to get the House Wren and a few chickadees.
After bird banding, my sister and I went home and cared for our poor dog, Gus, who got into a fight yesterday with another of our sweet dogs Wall-E. I ate dinner with my friend and her family. Great first day to my gap year, save that two of my dogs are recovering from a fight.
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| The bird banding table (it's always like this :) |
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| Vanessa holding a Common Grackle |
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| John Gerwin holding a Carolina Chickadee. You can see the color bands on it's feet, and the tail feather shape. |
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| Vanessa removing a Brown-headed Cowbird from a net |
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| A toad! |
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