by Jocelyn Pyne ·
Friday, September 27, 2024
After a long drive on a dusty dirt road, I eagerly hopped out of the car at a trailhead in the middle of nowhere, Alberta, Canada. I said my goodbyes to my mom and her friend as I slung my heavy backpack on and started down the trail. This was the start of an incredible week.
In the spring, I applied to Beaverhill Bird Observatory’s Young Ornithologist Workshop. For the past eight Augusts, Beaverhill Bird Observatory has hosted 10 teenage birders from around the world to visit and get hands-on bird banding experience. Banding is a research method for studying individuals and populations of birds. Each bird gets a lightweight aluminum band around its leg, like a bracelet. Each band has a nine-digit number on it. Banding can teach us about population trends, breeding productivity, migration, dispersal, lifespan, and other fascinating data. I was thrilled to be accepted into this year’s program.
After a short walk, I arrived at the clearing and was greeted by the biologists and the laser gun-like calls of purple martins flying overhead. Once all the students arrived, we learned about data sheets and then gathered around picnic tables for a homemade chili dinner. Before it was even dark, we headed to our tents to get some sleep in preparation for the early morning of banding ahead.
A robin gets a band applied. (Photo by Jocelyn Pyne)
At 4:30 in the morning, we climbed out of our sleeping bags. Greeted by the stars and bats, we grabbed a quick breakfast; then it was time to open the nets. Mist nets are very thin netting hung between two poles 12 meters apart. The nets have five pouches built into them. When a bird flies in and hits the net, it drops a foot or so and gently lands in the pouch below. We walked a route to check each net every half hour and carefully extracted any birds that had been caught. Birds got brought back to the observatory, where we banded them and collected data. We got to practice using the data sheets we had learned about the day before.
During the week we learned how to safely hold the bird in a bander’s grip and a photographer’s grip, how to measure the feathers, find the age and sex of the bird, check the bird’s fat stores and muscles, molt, weight, and how to extract a bird from the netting. Once we were done with data collection, the birds went back to flitting about in the trees and got to show off their new bling to their friends.
One of the most common birds we caught was the least flycatcher, which has a habit of getting itself very tangled in the netting. Yellow warblers, red-eyed vireos, warbling vireos, Tennessee warblers, and black-capped chickadees were also common finds in the nets. What many don’t realize about the cute chickadees they have in their backyard is just how much of a little menace they can be in the hand. No bander’s fingers are safe from their grabbing, pecking, and biting. The Philadelphia vireo we caught was the observatory’s first one of the season, and a sharp-shinned hawk in our net was an exciting find on our last day.
Once we finished banding around midday, we did a range of activities that included conducting a shore bird survey, touring a falconry farm, helping to release rehab ducklings, learning about the tree swallows of Beaverhill, and searching for butterflies. We took part in a bioblitz where we identified over 250 species together, did hummingbird banding, and completed a big birding day.
Big Day is a young ornithologist workshop tradition at the observatory. The students try to find as many bird species as possible in a single day. After birding at Beaverhill, we met up with local experts to visit Elk Island National Park and many little ponds. We went canoeing and paddle boating, and finally we made an unsuccessful attempt to attract a yellow rail by clicking rocks together after dusk. We totaled 113 species, successfully beating last year’s record.
Whether it’s banding, joining a local bird watching group, or identifying the species who visit your backyard feeder, there are lots of ways to enjoy the birds that are all around you. To learn more about bird banding, check out these banding stations in Massachusetts:
From a young age Jocelyn Pyne showed an interest in nature and became a serious birder at 13. Jocelyn is an assistant leader with Mass Audubon’s teen birders. She serves on the Brookline Bird Club conservation and education committee; the club awarded her a Bill Drummond Young Birder scholarship to Hog Island, Maine. She has birded in 22 states and four countries.
—David and Pam Durrant