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| Spring Bird
Banding at Prince Edward Point, Ontario |
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| We arrived just in time for the daily bird
count, which takes place from 7 to 8 o'clock each morning. Brian Joyce
was the bird bander in charge that day, he is also the Vice President
of the PEPtBO (Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory). With as many
volunteers and bird enthusiasts as they can muster, the walk begins.
With a large gang, generally more types of birds are spotted, but
being good at sighting bird species and recognizing bird calls is
like any other talent or passion. It takes experience. |
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| Sharp Shinned Hawk |
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| As we walked, Brian's arms seemed never to
stop moving as he pointed at what to us, seemed like dark specks in
trees. He would call out the types and number of birds to George,
who is a volunteer of the spring banding. Brian would stop and listen
sometimes and name a species of bird from its song. A keen ear and
eye are essential for this daily routine. |
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| American Goldfinch |
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| After the morning count, we settled in to
watch Brian do the banding. The volunteers extract the birds from
the mist nets, which are made of very delicate mesh that won't hurt
the birds before they are collected. Net rounds occur every 20 minutes.
Volunteers extract the birds from 7 net lanes consisting of up to
16 nets that are each 10 feet high and 40 feet long. |
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| Volunteers at the
Mist Nets |
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| They are then brought back individualy in
soft opaque cotton bags. At the Van Cott Cottage the bags are hung
on hooks while being organized by whether they were caught in the
mist nets, ground traps or the jay trap. The ground birds have mettle
mesh cages they walk in for free seed but can't figure their way out. |
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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| Brian takes one cotton bag at a time and reaches
in gently to take the bird out. This is where a third sense comes
into play. Besides a keen ear and eye, he uses feel. For fun, he figures
out which type of bird he has by its size, if it bites and how hard.
Once he has the head under control, the sharpness of the claws and
how much they dig in helps him determine what kind of bird it is.
Painful, but often accurate, this is a third sense only good bird
bander have for typing birds. |
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| Blue Jay |
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| As he lifts them out of the bag, we
see that his fingers and hands are so delicate and experienced
at handling the birds, that most of them seem tame in his grasp
as he casually tips them to the side to chose the size of band
for their leg. The first pose for holding the birds is
with their heads between his index and middle finger, and
their body held by his thumb, pinky and ring fingers. |
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| White-crowned Sparrow |
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| Spring Bird Banding Continued / Page #2 |
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