June 10, 2007
Banding for dummies (Baguage pour les nuls)
When I received an email about the possibility of joining a bird banding/ringing session on the campus last Sunday, I jumped at the chance... I was somewhat less excited when I heard about the 5am rendezvous!
CRBPO ringer Fabien Martayen and his brother had got up even earlier to set up the 11 nets beforehand. Myself and another couple of newbies watched and learned during the first two rounds, and later on, got to try out many of the tasks ourselves. I didn't do too badly at extracting the birds from the nets, though my knot-tying skills leave much to be desired! Needless to say I was fairly trigger-happy with the camera, so here are a selection of photos of the 15 species we bagged.
The first step is to remove the birds from the nets (Dunnock/accenteur mouchet pictured here).
We usually started with the feet, then the wings, and technically the net should then just slip over the bird's head. This young Winter Wren (Troglodyte mignon) managed to get into a tangle.
The bird (young Robin/Rougegorge) is then fitted with an appropriate-sized ring and its species (first three letters of the scientific names, so that Robin = ERIRUB and so on) noted in the log book.
As far as possible, the bird is aged and sexed: the extensive yellow on the face of this Blue Tit (Mesange bleue) clearly mark it out as a 1st year bird.
In other cases the distinction is more subtle: here are an adult female (foreground) and young Blackcap (Fauvette a tete noire). The female's crown is a touch more rufous, and contrasts more with the greyish tones of the body than the drabber young bird.
I was surprised at just how much bare skin is revealed on the birds by simply blowing the feathers aside - this often enables determination of the sex (all depends on the size of your cloaca!), fat reserves and breeding condition - this female Blackcap shows an extensive brood patch.
The wing length is noted (Bullfinch/Bouvreuil pivoine)...
... and the bird is weighed. For small birds this is done by placing the bird head-first into a cardboard cone, but larger birds such as this Blackbird (Merle noir) are cradled in a piece of cloth.
Identifying birds in the hand seems an entirely different ball-game to field ID. For example, Willow Warbler (Pouillot fitis, pictured here) was obviously bigger and bulkier in the hand than Chiffchaff (Pouillot veloce).
Another difference between the two is the number of flight feathers showing 'bumps' along their outer edge: five for Willow (FITIS=5 letters)...
... and six on Chiffchaff (VELOCE=6).
The highlight for me was extracting a Melodious Warbler (Hypolais polyglotte) from the net and enjoying some close-up views.
Note the short primary projection!
Garden Warbler (Fauvette des jardins) and Whitethroat (Fauvette grisette) completed the warbler line-up.
Bullfinch vying for most attractive catch of the day.
While most of the birds remained remarkably calm during the handling process, there were some exceptions. It seems size is inversely proportional to viciousness, and this Marsh Tit (Mesange nonnette) repeatedly tried to take chunks out of our fingers!
This Song Thrush (Grive musicienne) had a hissy fit when I tried to handle it, projectile-pooping over the net and my hands - nice!
This isn't a bizarre photo of the conga, we're just trying to avoid the shoulder-high stinging nettles!
I learned a lot over the course of the morning (thanks so much, Fabien), and hope I'll get another opportunity to try this again soon.
Posted by rjhall at June 10, 2007 10:18 PM