PSBO’s Cascades Banding Camp trains high school students and adults from around the country in bird-banding techniques while documenting how birds use moist high-elevation meadows in the Cascade Mountains to replace their feathers and prepare for southward migration during August.
The role of these meadows in feeding both montane breeders and those from lower elevations during this short but critical period is only poorly understood. By banding birds at several elevations over several weeks and recording the extent and speed of their molt, we will collect data important to understanding the role these meadows play in supporting these species and what conservation implications may arise from potential effects of climate change on moisture levels in these meadows. At the same time, the presence of birds of all ages and in heavy molt offer an ideal opportunity to teach about the important but subtle plumage differences between birds of different ages and plumage stages.
What better way to gain an immediate appreciation for the daily challenges these birds face than weathering the freezing montane nights of mid August in tents? How better to understand the abundance of the available food resources that draws these birds up from the dry slopes and lowlands to molt than to be subjected to the hordes of meadow mosquitoes while carefully extracting birds from mist nets? In training students young and old, we are building up our base of committed banders and amateur ornithologists that constitute our core membership.
