Adult Banding Camp 2011 Off and Running

PSBO’s bander training program, the Cascades Banding Camp is in its eighth summer. We offer a six night course for adults and a five night course for teens. This year’s adult camp, full to capacity, began today with twelve adults from across the United States convening at McDaniel Lake to begin a six day . . . → Read More: Adult Banding Camp 2011 Off and Running

PSBO’s Cascades Bird Banding Camp for Adults @ the McDaniel Field Station

The 2011 Adult Banding Camp is now Full

Learn bird-banding techniques at PSBO’s McDaniel Field Station in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. Under the guidance of expert trainers, participants will focus on the basics of net placement, bird handling and net extraction, aging and sexing, and molts and plumage. Participants gain valuable skills while documenting how . . . → Read More: PSBO’s Cascades Bird Banding Camp for Adults @ the McDaniel Field Station

Meadows Project Volunteers at the McDaniel Field Station

Photo by Sarah Krueger

This year we are offering volunteers the opportunity to visit the McDaniel Field station and help collect data for our Meadows Project. Slots will be available for banders of all levels, as well as station hosts and visitors/observers. Our fantastic camp chef, Erin Sara, will provide all meals for . . . → Read More: Meadows Project Volunteers at the McDaniel Field Station

Sora rail release

Ryan, our Audubon staffer, let the Sora go out by the marsh where the students first discovered it.  The bird took off from his hand, proving to be a remarkably strong flier.  Ironically, it flew clear across the marsh and landed on the far bank of the pond; after a brief recovery, it ran . . . → Read More: Sora rail release

Sora rail portraits

All the students had a chance to hold the Sora so they could experience firsthand where the expression “thin as a rail” originates:  rails actually show extreme lateral compression to their breastbone, presumably to aid their forays through their favored, densely vegetated marsh habitat.

Sarah, our communications coordinator came up for a day, to . . . → Read More: Sora rail portraits

Think like a Sora Rail

Photo by Dan Froehlich

The highlight of teen banding camp came on Thursday when the students flushed a Sora Rail out of the marsh that chanced to fly up toward the camp and tried to hide among some dark Ponderosa trunks.  Everyone sprang into action to encircle the tree and trap the odd . . . → Read More: Think like a Sora Rail

A family occasion: family banding weekend!

Three families braved the threat of the campside rattlesnake and joined us at the McDaniel Lake field station for our first ever family banding weekend. We were fortunate to have 9 year old Andrew and 11 year old Ellery, both with a deep interest in birds. For them, observing our researchers identify flycatchers in . . . → Read More: A family occasion: family banding weekend!

Of sparrows & sapsuckers

Photo by Dan Froehlich.

Lincoln’s Sparrows up at Cash Prairie continued to pose identification challenges for the student

Lincoln's Sparrow. Photo by Dan Froehlich.

banders, illustrating that bird id in the hand is quite different than in the field.  In the hand people use field marks quite different from those often . . . → Read More: Of sparrows & sapsuckers