Wild Wings Festival at IslandWood: Bird Banding and David Sibley

Master Bander Don Norman examining a wingEarlier this month, a friend and I headed out on the ferry over to Bainbridge Island for the Wild Wings Festival at IslandWood.

If you're not familiar with IslandWood, it is a 255-acre outdoor learning center with a mission "to provide exceptional learning experiences and to inspire lifelong environmental and community stewardship."

It is a "school in the woods," educating kids about environmental and sustainability issues through direct experience, by bringing them outside into nature. IslandWood offers scholarships to schools that meet the criteria for need, one of which is a student population that had a high percentage of students from low-income families.

IslandWood's focus is mainly school programs, but they also offer periodic public events that are sometimes free (see the bottom of this post for an upcoming one).

For more information on the center, see this article from the Seattle Times or watch the below video.

It's a pretty impressive place. This is no crunchy-granola ramshackle summer camp. It has that sleekly sophisticated aesthetic of modern (and moneyed) sustainability. I turned to my friend at one point and exclaimed, "I know what this place reminds me of: Jurassic Park!" It had a similar feel (and scale) to the set of that film, just without, obviously, the unnerving threat of velociraptors.

We were there, though, to see the distant relatives of velociraptors and their other dinosaur kin. Well, I suppose we're all distant relatives, but we were there to see those less-distant than ourselves: birds.

The Wild Wings Festival was an all-ages, mainly free birding event with lectures, demonstrations and nature walks. I signed up for two free events: a bird banding workshop and a bird song walk. We also stayed that evening for a lecture by David Sibley, author and illustrator of several well-respected bird guides.

The banding workshop was led by Don Norman, a wildlife toxicologist, Master Bander and vice-president of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory. (He was also just back from helping out with the wildlife rescue efforts in the Gulf.)

(See larger views of these photos and more pictures from the event in the photo gallery)

We started with an overview of the purpose of banding wild birds. By tracking their numbers, age, movement, overall condition and other factors, researchers can build a picture of the state of the population. All of this information can help with conversation efforts by illuminating what is happening within a certain species or set of species. (See this article by Don in the Seattle Audubon newsletter for more information.)

Thrush corpsesWe then took a look at a variety of corpses of birds (mainly Varied Thrushes, with a few American Robins), most of which had died after flying in windows. I previously thought this was just an unfortunate but random accident. It turns out that you can actually see trends in birds that die this way: they are often young and new to the area and have therefore not learned about windows.

Getting chickadee out of the netDon showed us how the tiny, seemingly imperceptible variations in plumage color and wear could be used to determine the age of the bird. It's important for a bird bander to become familiar with these details because he or she will want to be able to see them quickly when dealing with a live bird. The resource guide banders use is the dense and incredibly detailed The Identification Guide to North American Birds: Part 1 by Peter Pyle. This book is probably beyond the casual birder (it was beyond me, at least) as it covers molting, feather wear and other close-up details that you would usually need a bird-in-hand to be able to see. (Also, it does all this in text! Very few illustrations.)

Song sparrow in bander's gripAfter setting up the net and waiting for about fifteen minutes, we returned to find three birds ready to be banded: a Song Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee and, most exciting, a Black-throated Gray Warbler. Don carefully untangled them from the net (this is a very delicate process and should only be done by someone knowledgeable about extraction) and held them in a bander's grip. While we had an experienced birder there to help with the third bird, Don said that banders need to learn how to hold multiple birds.

Black-throated gray warbler being examinedBack at our makeshift banding station, the birds were placed in muslin sacks (and were not very happy about it). The Song Sparrow escaped, but luckily we were able to fully document the other two. Don banded them and read off key details about age, sex and plumage wear that one of the fellow workshop participants noted on a special banding sheet. (By the way: male birds in reproductive years can be identified by their "Cloacal Protuberance" which one sees by blowing on the feathers on the abdomen and looking for a little… protuberance. Females in reproductive years usually have a "brood patch," a little featherless area that helps transfer heat to the eggs.)

Weighing birdThe birds returned to their sacks for a quick weigh-in and then released. Overall, they were probably in human captivity for about ten minutes.

While I don't know if I'll ever take up banding, it is always thrilling to have the chance to see something wild so close-up, and so I really enjoyed the workshop.

Afterwards, we went on a birdsong walk. It was a drizzly day, and the birds weren't quite cooperating by actually singing very much.

We did eventually hear and see a family of Brown Creepers, a Pileated Woodpecker (which I was pleased to be the one to spot after we heard it and I started looking around for a snag, having learned on previous walks that those are their hotspots), and a Chestnut-backed Chickadee. I was even able to take one of my very special Terrible Bird Photos of that last one.

Terrible Chestnut-backed Chickadee photoThe evening ended with a lecture by artist and author David Sibley. One of the key takeaways for me from that talk was that by drawing nature, we can connect with it and learn about it more deeply. I must admit that as a non-artist, it doesn't often occur to me to sketch; I rely on my awful photographs to capture things I can't identify. But I had once made a crude drawing of a Pied-billed Grebe (before I knew what it was) when I couldn't get a photo. It's true that the act of trying to recreate it helped fix some details more firmly in my mind. So maybe I will add Terrible Bird Drawings to my repertoire.

Terrible Pied-billed Grebe drawingOn the way home, we did a little final bird-watching while waiting for the ferry. At first we were disappointed by the lack of interesting things to spot, just a bunch of gulls, crows and sparrows. But then we saw two dark, chattering, rattling birds zipping around above us. It took me a minute, but I dredged up a possibility: "I think that's a Belted Kingfisher." One landed on a streetlamp and we were able to confirm it

The Belted Kingfisher was probably the second non-pigeon/non-Mallard bird I ever figured out, back on December 7, 2009 during a ramble through Meadowbrook Pond. I was just starting to become more seriously interested in birds then, and it's gratifying to see how far I've come and how much I learned.

Here are some links for more information on IslandWood events and bird banding:

• On July 11, IslandWood is offering a free walk called "Botanical Brawl." "Defensive adaptations in the plant kingdom are often more intense than the animal world. Participants will be introduced to species with various chemical, physical and fungal mechanisms to defend their survival. We'll hike the IslandWood trails and have a sensory experience with the local flora of the northwest."
• On July 10, IslandWood is offering a NOT free benefit dinner with Greg Atkinson called "Celebrating the Flavors of Summer." Prices start at $95 and there are overnight and childcare options.
• Bird Banding Laboratory (for reporting sighting of banded birds)
• Puget Sound Bird Observatory has banding workshops for adults and teens this summer.
• Again, here's the newsletter article by Don on birding.

Comments

[Christen]

IslandWood also has summer camps for kids interested in learning more about nature, including birds! This week 3rd and 4th grade campers are investigating birds through our Feathered Friends program. If your child or someone you know is interested in exploring at IslandWood this summer, please check out our camp website for availability, program descriptions, and registration.
There are 1/2 day, full day, overnight programs available for kids and weekend-long programs for the whole family!

http://islandwood.org/families

[lqs]

Thanks, Christen! I forgot to mention those. I will also add it to the kids camp round-up I did a little earlier this month. Thanks!