Band(ing) of Birds - part 2

In my previous post, "Band(ing) of Birds - part 1", I shared pictures I took at the Manomet Center for Conservation Studies. Manomet is a small village in the Town of Plymouth. This time I'm going to show some pictures of what went on behind the scenes. The first picture shows one of the magnificent views from the Center. On a clear day, which this was not, you an see all the way to Cape Cod. As with all of my pictures, just click on the picture to see it larger.

The next picture, on the left, shows the band that has been put on a Catbird. They explained that it isn't a simple as it looks ad a bird bander must be taught and certified. The band can't be too loose or it might fall off or irritate the bird by moving too much. And the band can't be too tight or it will hurt the bird or cut of circulation to the rest of that appendage. I wouldn't be the one needing to read the information on the band, either. There is an amazing amount of information on that small band.

The next picture show the hazards of working with the birds. This young Cardinal is making it known that he didn't appreciate being caught in the net and handled by a human. Many of the birds bite their handlers but the Cardinals are among those with the more powerful beaks and bites. We asked if they tried using gloves when handling the birds but the staff told us that they need to feel the birds so they know how tightly to hold them without hurting them. Gloves that are thick enough to offer protection take away that feeling. You'll be happy to know that neither the young woman nor the bird were hurt during this operation. Yes, she was bitten hard and it did draw blood but she said she was used to it and didn't get angry or even yell out. I would have been yelling so loudly all the birds in the forest would have cleared out.

The last picture shows some of the photographers gathered around a bird about to be released by the Director of Bird Banding, Trevor Lloyd-Evans. See how he is used to this and holds the bird out so we can get a picture of the bird and not him. He was quite an entertaining speaker and a very good teacher. You could tell he was used to being in a scholarly setting by his constantly throwing questions to us into his discussion. You can see my wife, Cindy, in the purple top, on the right of this picture.

We had a wonderful time. We saw things we'd never normally get to see and we learned a lot. We met some nice people and had wonderful time together. I'm so glad Cindy wanted to do this.