By Stan Lilley I’m a bird-banding grunt. You know, one of those guys who do the unglamorous stuff. Like toting poles and mist nets, and setting up banding tables and trudging around to tend the nets. And pulling tangled birds out and bagging them and taking them to the real experts. I don’t “skull” or take wing-cord measurements, or “age” the capturees or apply their little bracelets. I just do the mundane stuff. For those who don’t know what a banding operation is all about, here’s the concept in a nutshell. You set up a series of mist nets, anywhere from half a dozen to two dozen, depending on the program, in an area where birds are passing through. Mist nets are very fine-meshed nylon nets loosely hung from poles in a configuration vaguely reminiscent of a volleyball net and poles. The nets have multiple tiers, or trammels, into which birds may fly and become entangled. You then extract them, put them in a capture bag and take them to the location where the bander has a data-gathering and banding table set up. They are banded with a small aluminum, numbered band, appropriate to the size of the bird, checked for physical condition, molt status, evidence of breeding activity (such as presence or absence of a brood patch), aged, identified by sex and species. Wing-lengths and wing-wear, and sometimes culmen and tail lengths are taken and sometimes the birds are weighed. All of this data is recorded for use locally and also reported to the national database of the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) operated by the US Department of Interior at Patuxent, Maryland. I know there are those who aren’t fans of banding. But bird banding can yield a lot of valuable information. Individually identifying each bird through banding helps us study dispersal, migration, behavior, social structure, life span, survival rate, reproductive success, nest site fidelity, general health and population growth and decline. Birds are sometimes recaptured in the same year, or in succeeding years at the same location, and valuable comparative data can be immediately gleaned by the original bander. On rarer occasions a bird is recaptured at a distant site and the data reported to the BBL is then passed back to the original bander. In this way, researchers at both ends of the route gain information on migration locations, bird health, and such. Sometimes an individual finds a dead bird and reports the band to the BBL. While this yields less data, it still tells researchers something about the dispersal of the banded bird. The more birds of a particular species that are banded, the more useful the information. So banding truly has a valuable place in our efforts to understand and protect birds. I was first introduced to banding in Southeast Arizona. My wife, Pat and I only really became serious birders, thanks in large part to Tom Wood and Sheri Williamson, former managers of The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Ramsey Canyon Preserve, when we moved back to Arizona from Maryland in late 1994. Tom and Sheri left TNC and formed the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory in Bisbee, in 1996. One day we were on a bird walk with them near the San Pedro House, in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), near Sierra Vista, Arizona, when we came upon a mist netting operation in progress. In hindsight, I think I immediately became as ensnared by the process as did those little birds that unsuspectingly flew into the nets. A Blue Grosbeak about to regain freedom. That particular operation is conducted by Jack Whetstone, of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Jack bands under two programs. He does breeding bird monitoring under the Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program and bands resident and migrating birds in spring and fall under the auspices of the San Pedro Avian Resource Center (SPARC). Banding with Jack is a lot of fun. He enjoys talking to young people about banding, and explaining, "what's going on," to the occasional passersby who discover his operation on the San Pedro River. What a wonderful place to band. The San Pedro, a small river flowing north out of Mexico, with its associated narrow riparian band of greenery, has been named one of America's "Last Great Places" by TNC. Jack’s banding sessions are generally quite popular with volunteers because they are easy to get to and there is nearly always a lot of bird activity. This is traditionally one of the busiest MAPS stations in the country. In breeding season it's a great chance to see Yellow Warblers, Yellow-breasted Chats and Summer Tanagers being banded. In fall, you'll see more White-crowned Sparrows than you can imagine, as well as Green-tailed Towhees, Lincoln's Sparrows and Song Sparrows. Over the years more than one hundred species of birds have been banded at Jack’s MAPS and SPARC sites. But, when times are slow, Jack and a tight-knit group of regular volunteers still have a great time discussing and solving the world's ills, observing and recording birds passing through, but well above the net lanes, and just generally shooting the breeze. In addition to the occasional great joke, Jack seems to know just about every "groaner" ever created. A great time is had by all. Jack Whetstone lectures a group of interested observers. As a new helper I had a lot to learn about extracting birds from the nets. I learned most of the tricks of the trade from long-time BLM volunteer Dot Rhodes, a gruff but compassionate teacher who has a gift for digging the birds out without harm. One of the first things I learned was that birds are a lot tougher than you might think. They can take a lot of picking and pulling and still fly off no worse for the experience. I learned that the key to extraction is figuring out how the bird entered the net, then reversing the process. But even that can be more difficult than it sounds. It’s not unusual for a bird to wrap itself around more than one trammel, or pass nearly all the way through the net. And from Dot I learned the secret of the crochet hook. How even the most hopelessly entangled bird can often be freed by the strategic pull of the hook on a piece of net over a wing wrist or over the head. Dot Rhodes bags a newly captured bird. Shortly after bumping into Jack’s passerine netting site, I decided take the plunge and offer to help Tom Wood and Sheri Williamson with their hummingbird operation. Tom and Sheri have operated a hummingbird banding station at the San Pedro House, in the heart of the SPRNCA since about 1996. Conducted primarily at their own expense, it’s a combination research effort and educational venue. Tom Wood and Sheri Williamson work the hummer banding table. Their hummer trapping setup is unlike the standard linear placement of a mist net to capture songbirds. Tom sets a net around a nectar feeder that has been in place and regularly filled. He shapes the net in perhaps a 6 foot wide by 12 foot long rectangle, open on one end, and puts another net over the top. This leaves only one 6 foot wide opening for the hummers to enter the trap to get to the nectar. Then it becomes a waiting game. Tom backs away and waits for one or more birds to enter the trap, then rushes forward, chasing the birds into the net. As Tom and the occasional volunteer “chaser” capture the birds, Sheri happily bands while simultaneously telling rapt audiences about molts and feather shapes and the like. Before releasing a bird back to freedom, she gives it a refreshing sip or two from a nearby nectar feeder at the banding table and often places it in the open palm of a child, with instructions to, “just keep your hand open and it will go when it’s ready.” After anywhere from seconds to a minute, the little gem suddenly darts off to the delight and awe of the youngster. Now that’s the way to make a new birder for life! Besides their work with hummingbirds, Tom and Sheri also operate MAPS banding stations with the National Park Service at Southeast Arizona's Coronado National Memorial and with the US Forest Service in the Chiricahua Mountains. These can often be stations with limited numbers of catches, and far fewer volunteers because they are harder to reach and the action is slower. But they are still quite interesting because they offer completely different habitat and different birds than the San Pedro River. My experience was primarily at the Coronado station. This is a place where Mexican Jay (formerly called Gray-breasted Jay), Black-throated Gray Warbler and Arizona Woodpecker (formerly called Strickland's Woodpecker) are the common catch. Here, too, Tom and Sheri have a small core of dedicated volunteers who help keep things going, and who love being outdoors for a good cause. Mexican Jays have pretty sharp claws and a tendency to want to grab hold of something while they are going through the banding, measuring and examination process. We usually gave them a stick to clutch to keep those sharp feet from digging into tender human hands. Sometimes the nearest “stick” is a loose pencil lying on the recording table, and it serves the purpose just as well. I remember the time, during a particularly slow period, we laughed and joked about just handing the Jay a pencil and having it record its own data! A Mexican Jay is ready to enter his own data!. When Pat and I made the decision to move to Michigan I was afraid I would lose the opportunity to see the birds in hand. I heard that there was a MAPS station at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, but that’s a pretty good distance from my home in Weidman when you have to be at the site at the crack of dawn. I also heard there was an operation near Alma, but it took me two years to track down Michael Bishop. In addition to his full-time duties as a Biology professor, Mike conducts MAPS and migration monitoring banding operations at Alma College’s Vestaburg Bog. Net tending with Mike is akin to being in a mini-marathon. Mike typically operates 15 to 20 nets and moves from one to the next at just slightly less than a full jog. If you can keep up with Mike for a full day I guarantee you’ve had your exercise. As with anyone I’ve met in the banding world, Mike loves to share his knowledge and experience. I’ve seen him equally at home talking birds and banding with pre-schoolers or adult nature groups. My experience with Mike was near the end of last year’s banding season. I’m looking forward to spending more time with him in the future. If only I can keep up... Mike Bishop taking the critical measurements. You know, as I look back on these pictures and the great memories I have, I’m starting to wonder who has the more “unglamorous” job, the banding grunt or the bander. After all, I’m the one who gets to pull the bird from the net, and make the initial identification, and admire up-close, the field marks and nuances that make each species and each bird special. The bander has to do all that scientific measuring and recording while I’m just appreciating the beauty and the remarkable strength and resilience of these feathered marvels. All things considered, while I deeply respect the purpose and the dedication of the banders I’ve had the pleasure to meet, I think I’d rather be a grunt! If you’d like more information about some of the people, places and programs in this story, here are some great sites: The Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory (SABO) San Pedro River Bird Banding The Michigan Field Ornithologists and Bird Banders Patuxent Bird Banding Laboratory Institute for Bird Populations Photo of Ruby-crowned Kinglet banded at Whitefish Point Bird Observatory, April 2003, is courtesy of Ken Hoover. All other Text and Photos contained in this feature are COPYRIGHT of Stan Lilley.