Banding Little Birds

 I love being a part of multiple Facebook groups.  That's the easiest way to learn about things to do in any area.  Recently, the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society put out a call for people to help with banding of a local population of Henslow's Sparrows.  The Henslow's Sparrow is considered near threatened, and a population is believed to be recovering in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Rescue in Gautier, Mississippi.  Anybody who knows me would not be surprised to learn that I jumped at this opportunity!

So, up nice and early on a Saturday morning.  Sprayed up with bug spray and sunscreen with my hiking boots.  Ready to traipse through the boggy, uneven, wet pine savanna of coastal Mississippi.  With camera in tow, I headed to the visitors center.  There was a pretty good crowd assembled.  I didn't count, but there were enough of us for two groups to flush out the birds.  Our leaders for this activity were Dr. Abby Darrah with Audubon Delta, a regional section of the National Audubon Society, and Dr. Mark Woodrey with Mississippi State University.

After a brief description of the bird that was our target and some other birds that could be mistaken for the Henslow's Sparrow and a brief summary of what we would be doing, we carpooled to a part of the park that is not open to the public.  Once there, two nets were prepared and we split into two roughly equal groups and headed into the savanna.  We walked in lines through the savanna toward the tree line, watching for birds to fly up.  Once you see one fly up (flush out), you keep an eye on where it landed, which is usually just a few feet up from where it flushed out.  In my group, Mark and Abby then walked around in the direction the bird flew, posted the net behind it and opened the net to prepare to catch the bird.  Once the net was positioned, the rest of us formed a semicircle around the bird with the net closing the arc.  Then we walked toward the net, causing the bird to fly again, into the net, where it lighty tangled into the net, long enough for Abby to retrieve it and put it into a small cloth bag.

Once the bird was in the bag, Abby's banding kit was produced by the photographer that was carrying it. This tackle box contained all the tools needed to check and record the bird's vital information and band it for future study.

Abby held the bird for a while in what is known as the photographer's hold.  Only skilled ornithologists should ever hold a bird this way because an inexperienced person can cause a dislocation of the joints of the feet and legs.  People skilled with working with the birds can hold onto them without causing harm, even if they make a half-hearted attempt to fly away.

Once the camp chair and Abby's kit were settled, Abby got to work on the vitals check.  Mark scribed the information on the appropriate form.  She took a pair of special pliers and closed the tiny band on the bird's leg.  These bands are absolutely tiny, and if I remember correctly, she had smaller bands in the kit!

Then, she measured the wing, also checking it for mites and other parasites and for signs of age markers.  For the purposes of this activity, the birds were aged as either "hatch year" or "after hatch year".  A piece of interesting trivia is that birds, like horses, all have a birthday on January 1 of each year.  So, even for the young bird who was believed to have been hatched this past fall, it is now a one-year-old, and aged as AHY (after hatch year).

After this, Abby move the bird close to her face and blew into its chest.  There is a spot on the chest that is almost transparent below the feathers.  Through this window, you can see how much fat the bird has.  While birds do not hold much fat, as they must be light enough to fly, some fat is required to be able to migrate, especially when that migration occurs over water or other areas where they are not likely to find food.  They will have different levels of fat depending on the season and their life cycles.

Finally, she pulled out the scale and a piece of PVCpipe.  She placed the pipe on the scale and zeroed it out for tare weight.  She lowered the bird into the pipe head first and hovered her hand just over the pipe to prevent any escape, weighing the bird in grams.

Once the weight was recorded, she placed the bag over the pipe, and the bird flew back into the bag.

At this point, if there was anything that needed to be double checked, that could be done.  Or the bird could be released or any further study done.  In our case, the bird was passed off to a volunteer who could hold the bird in the protective hold and release it.  The protective hold is to cradle the head and neck gently between the first and middle fingers in one hand while letting the bird's feet stand on the other hand.  Fortunately, when it was my turn to release the bird, the Audubon photographer, Gary Herritz agreed to send me copies of the photos!

It was such an amazing experience and a highly memorable morning!  I will definitely participate in more of these activities as I learn of them, and I would recommend it to anyone!  Just locate the Audubon Society in your area and ask about activities they sponsor with public participation!