Almost every morning every fall, I notice a truck parked at the edge of the timber on the north side of campus as I come in from Faraon St., and I finally found out who it was and why they are there so often. It was devoted bird banding volunteers, and they invited me to join them one morning last fall.
The banders arrive on campus shortly before daybreak and stay until about 9:30 a.m., seven days a week (unless it is raining) from mid-April to the end of May, and again from mid-August to the first part of November.
On this particular morning, the volunteers included Jack Hilsabeck, Larry Lade, Karen Lyman, and Colton Zirkle, one of seven Missouri Western biology students who help out. By the time I arrived at 7:15 a.m., they had already set up the six nets, each about 12 meters long.
The nets are very fine, black mist nets. Six nets are set up along the trails on campus, and nine more are set up on property adjacent to the campus.
Some days, Larry says, they catch as many as 40 birds, while other days (usually when it’s a colder), they’ve caught just four or five. On the day I tagged along, they “netted” 28 birds. They disentangled the birds from the nets and placed them in lunch sacks.
At the table at the edge of the timber, the volunteers banded each bird (do I need to say the bands were very tiny?), weighed them, measured their wing chord length, gauged the fat content on their little chests, and noted the birds’ age and sex before they were turned loose. The data was all recorded and will be sent to the U.S. Geological Survey, which will then track the distribution, migration and populations of birds from data across the country.
Colton said he helps because he didn’t know very much about birds or bird banding. “I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some knowledgeable birders and learn how to capture and process birds.”
And knowledgeable is the right word. “Birds have been an interest of mine since I was a little kid,” Larry said, adding that he has travelled to 48 states, Africa, China and South America to bird watch.
Jack said he has been banding birds since 1971, and volunteers have banded more than 5,000 on campus. He is a retired high school biology teacher and a current adjunct professor at Missouri Western.
“I really enjoy working with and seeing different species of birds,” Jack said. “I also enjoy helping the Missouri Western students get some real-world biology experience working with birds.”
And I learned all about bird banding, too!