Age Determination by Plumage Characteristics Workshop- Jan 11-14 2007

Dawn Garcia, Project Coordinator

Dear donors and fundraising team, we had a very successful “age determination by plumage” characteristics workshop.  I have included a summary of our weekend. It was beneficial to bring in another bander’s expertise to clearly cement the how-tos and importance of ageing and sexing birds for monitoring purposes to my apprentice banders.  We had 10 participants including Mike Fisher, Julie Nelson, Nancy Nelson, Scott Huber, Steve and Raina King, Keith Paul, Colleen Martin, Michelle Ocken and Tim Ruckle.  All of these volunteers have contributed their time to my banding projects.

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Text Box: On Saturday, Jan. 13, we set up nets at the Big Chico Creek Ecological Center (BCCER) in the morning and banded 30 birds. Two were recaptures; one Golden-crowned sparrow from last year (1/07) and one from two years ago (1/06)!.  This species is a wintering bird and does not nest here- so you can see these sparrows do show site fidelity, even on the wintering grounds.  In the afternoon, Stuart King, caretaker for the property, invited us to have our classroom workshop in the on-site house.  It was a perfect place for a biological workshop.

Text Box: On Sunday we banded at CSU Chico's Butte Creek Ecological Preserve (BCEP), off Honey Run road.  This site provided us with 25 birds of 7 species, a sunny day, and a very satisfied crew of banders who were given an opportunity to practice their new skills.

Please understand the importance of this workshop. We will be able to run more banding stations and run established stations more efficiently.  This is critical when comparing results and trends within and between stations across the west.  Birds are excellent indicators of environmental health and their behavior due to climate change predictions has already been modeled.  We can help validate those predictions. We are on our way to establishing more banding stations combined with educational outreach, to contribute to regional and global avian research.  Thank you so much for helping us meet our goals.

Following are the results from our banding efforts during the workshop.:

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January 12, 2008

BCCER - Country Club (COCL)

  • 17 Golden- crowned sparrow (2 recaps from 1/06 and 1/07)
  • 5 Oregon junco
  • 4 Spotted Towhee
  • 1 Hermit thrush
  • 1 Ruby-crowned kinglet
  • 1 Red-breasted sapsucker

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January 13, 2008
BCEP

  • 10 Lesser goldfinch
  • 2 Ruby-crowned kinglet
  • 1 Oak titmouse
  • 6 Hermit thrush
  • 1 Fox sparrow
  • 1 Golden-crowned sparrow
  • 2 Spotted towhee
  • 1 Anna’s hummingbird
  • 1 Bewick’s wren (recapture from 4/7/2006 as AHY/U and captured 6 times where she was sexed during the breeding season as a female with a BP.) She is in at least her 3 rd year.
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We always look forward to a successful release!

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Thank you! Photo contributors: Raymond Lukens, Scott Huber, Stuart King and Dawn Garcia