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Sunday was wonderful day weatherwise and 8 Master Naturalists gathered to watch Dana Ripper and Ethan Duke pull birds from the mist nets and band them. The nets were stretched at 9:45 am and we started getting birds just after 10:00. The first bird to get banded was a white-breasted nuthatch. Dana took time to explain the measurements she was taking of the bird's wings, beak length, leg length and weight. She checked the feathers to determine the age of the bird and blew on the chest feathers to check fat. Manuals were consulted when it was harder to determine the age based on the feathers. Ethan meanwhile was pulling birds from the nets.
We were all surprised when a sharp shinned hawk came hunting at the feeders and were thrilled when he got tangled in the net. All in all, they banded 38 birds and had one re-capture of a female downy woodpecker that had been banded here a year and a half ago by two Canadian researchers. The species banded included White-breasted nuthatch, Junco, Carolina Chickadee, Black capped Chickadee, Downy woodpecker (9 -all of which were females!), Tufted titmouse, American Goldfinch, Purple finch and sharp-shinned Hawk. A Truly successful day!
I've attached are several pictures from the proceedings. Dana and Ethan hope to come back in January because there were several bird species that we didn't capture. They also would be interested in banding at another site locally if anyone is feeding birds and watching them. One requirement is that you not have outside cats. We'll keep you informed of their plans and maybe you can join us the next time they come.
They hadn't had enough birding during the day so we put up nets in the woods looking for Northern saw-whet owls. They went up at 5:30 pm and we checked them every 40 minutes after that. We were thrilled when we actually caught two that evening. Ethan says they are the first ones banded this far south in Missouri - a record!
I hope that you can join us next month when they return to band again. Enjoy the pictures!
Pat