cenemes
IMG_5693
The flustered cardinal. When untangling birds from the netting Carin immediately sticks each one into a cloth bag, sometimes tying the bag to her belt if more than one specimen needs to be collected. Then she weighs the bagged bird; attempts to ascertain sex and age; measures the tail length, wing feathers, and tarsus (which give a better idea of the bird's overall size and condition than weight alone does); attaches two color bands (unmarked) and one aluminum band (each imprinted with a unique number so that the bird can be identified if later recaptured); records all this information; patiently answers my zillions of questions; and releases the bird, nonplussed, in the general direction from whence it came. The whole process generally takes no longer than five minutes.
An interesting side note: you need different equipment and a special permit in order to band hummingbirds; Carin says she hates doing it because they're "just too damn tiny"! Luckily all of our resident hummers zipped nimbly over the net to reach the feeder (dangling right above the workstation.) It's amazing how canny they are and how few birds we actually caught, considering the breadth of the nets!
IMG_5693
The flustered cardinal. When untangling birds from the netting Carin immediately sticks each one into a cloth bag, sometimes tying the bag to her belt if more than one specimen needs to be collected. Then she weighs the bagged bird; attempts to ascertain sex and age; measures the tail length, wing feathers, and tarsus (which give a better idea of the bird's overall size and condition than weight alone does); attaches two color bands (unmarked) and one aluminum band (each imprinted with a unique number so that the bird can be identified if later recaptured); records all this information; patiently answers my zillions of questions; and releases the bird, nonplussed, in the general direction from whence it came. The whole process generally takes no longer than five minutes.
An interesting side note: you need different equipment and a special permit in order to band hummingbirds; Carin says she hates doing it because they're "just too damn tiny"! Luckily all of our resident hummers zipped nimbly over the net to reach the feeder (dangling right above the workstation.) It's amazing how canny they are and how few birds we actually caught, considering the breadth of the nets!