This is long overdue, but hello from my internship at the
Palomarin Field Station!! I started here a month ago (wow, it’s been that long
already!), so I’ve had plenty of time to settle in and learn the ropes. I’m not
sure where to start, so I’ll just dive in somewhere. My living situation: The
field station has two main buildings – one with offices and the banding lab /
visitor’s center, and the other with several bunkrooms and a kitchen for the
interns or occasional visiting researcher. Normally the interns would share the
two large bunkrooms, but two of the other interns (Bobby and Kaitlyn) came here
as a couple, so they are in one of the small, private rooms. That means that
the other intern (Wyatt) and I each have our own bunkroom, each complete with 5
beds. My bunkroom is technically a bit smaller than Wyatt’s (it still fits 5
beds, how small can it be?), but I basically get my own bathroom because the
private room is on the same side of the building as Wyatt’s bathroom. (Each bathroom
has direct access into one bunkroom and the outdoors.) Hooray! We were both
sharing the rooms briefly while the last of the summer interns trickled out,
but now we’ve got our own rooms. The kitchen is pretty wonderful, too, because it’s
basically two kitchens. There are two fridges (three, if you count the
communal/staff fridge outside), two sinks, two stoves, two ovens, a TON of cupboard
space, and a big dinner table. SO nice having so much fridge space.
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| California Quail |
So, on to my work. My work is based out of the Palomarin
Field Station, which is part of the Point Blue Conservation Science
organization. My main job is to run mist net stations to capture and band
birds. I believe they are called “mist nets” because when they are set up they
are fairly difficult to see, like mist. If you know what you’re looking for and
focus on it, you can obviously see that it’s there, but the idea is that a bird
will be focused on things in the distance and will fly right into it without
seeing it first. Here at the station the nets are permanently set up along a
trail through the surrounding area (and have been for almost 50 years!). We open
the nets 15 minutes after sunrise and check them every 30 minutes for 6 hours,
and then we close them until the next banding day (we furl the nets up so
nothing can get caught in them, but we leave them attached to the poles). When
it’s time for a net run, we check each net from end to end and extract any
birds that are caught. The nets have 6 trammel lines running lengthwise that
create pockets of netting, so that when a bird flies into the net it will fall
into the pocket until we come along to take it out. Some extractions are easier
than others – the bird might not actually be tangled at all, just stuck in the
pocket, whereas others might be twisted and caught on every part possible. Some
birds (chickadees, in particular) seem to figure that if they can’t get out
themselves, then no one is going to get them out, so the grab on to as much
netting as they can get their claws on. Wonderful. Once we get them out, we put
them into bird bags (small, cotton bags with rope ties that we can secure the
opening with) and bring them back to the banding lab.
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| Western Scrub-Jay |
In the lab we start by identifying the species and then
putting a band on it (you aren’t supposed to band birds that you can’t
identify). We have different size bands so that we can put the appropriate size
on anything from a hummingbird to an eagle. Each band has a unique number on it
(like a license plate) so that if recaptured, the bird can be looked up in a
database to see previous information and add new info. This is particularly helpful
for looking at survival and population dynamics, among other things. The Bird
Banding Laboratory issues all official bands for banding in North America, so
if a bird banded in Canada was later recaptured in Mexico, the information
would all be submitted to the same master database, making it easier to track
individuals and monitor populations. Oh yeah, and the banding and measurements
are all done while holding the bird in the “bander’s grip”, which means that
you’ve got your index and middle fingers on either side of the bird’s head with
its back against your palm and thumb wrapped around the wing so that it can’t
flap and potentially injure itself (or escape). That way the legs are right out
in front and you can hold onto a foot at the same time to easily get a band on.
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
Anyways, after banding the bird (or recording the band
number if it is a recapture), we try to determine the bird’s age. The main
method that we use for ageing is called “skulling”, which involves blowing the
head feathers apart to get a good window of skin to see the skull. Birds are born
with one layer of thin, pinkish bone, and over the next few months a second,
thicker layer ossifies. We move the skin around to look for a contrast between
un-ossified pink areas and ossified white areas. If there IS a contrast, we
know that the bird must have been born this year. However, if there ISN’T a
contrast and the skull is completely ossified, it doesn’t necessarily mean that
the bird is an adult, so we often have to look for other criteria to help us
age it (plumage, eye color, shape of the tail feathers, amount of wear on the
flight feathers, etc). Sometimes it is super easy to see the skull, and other
times it’s impossible (birds that are molting head feathers, who have a lot of
dander, or who have darker skin are particularly difficult to skull). Skulling
is definitely the most difficult part of the banding process, and it’s about
the only banding procedure that I hadn’t done before in Peru.
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| Townsend's Warbler |
We also try to determine sex, which is often a lot easier
because in many cases we just don’t have a way of figuring it out. For many
birds, the only way to determine sex is if they have a brood patch (females) or
a cloacal protrusion (males), both of which happen during the breeding season,
which is basically over by now. (A brood patch is formed when nesting females
lose their belly feathers to expose a big open area of skin to incubate her
eggs with, and a cloaca is the opening where both poop and semen comes out,
which gets enlarged in males during the breeding season.) Some species have
differences in plumage between males and females, but often adult females may
look like young males. There are sometimes differences in eye color, wing
length, or weight that may indicate one or the other, but it all depends on the
species.
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| The orange in the crown means that this Golden-crowned Kinglet is a male |
After ageing and sexing the bird (or realizing that we
can’t), we record the amount of fat on the bird, the presence and extent of
body and flight feather molt, the wing chord, weight, the length of the tarsus
(lower leg) of only our study species, and any extra notes pertinent to certain
species (on some with colored crowns we measure the length of the crown as it
helps determine the sex, and on flycatchers we record tail length and the
difference in length between certain flight feathers as it’s the only way to
determine the species!). We also put plastic color bands on our study species,
which helps nest searchers in the spring/summer identify individuals in the
field and know whose territory they are in. After all that is done, we release
the bird! It seems like a lot, but we can usually do it in under 5 minutes if
it’s an easy bird (easy to age and sex, that is), or a bit longer if it’s not.
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| Spotted Towhee |
Some of our more common captures are Song Sparrows,
Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Swainson’s Thrushes (which I caught a bunch of in
Peru at the tail end of their migration – how cool!), Wrentits, Bushtits,
Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Bewick’s Wrens, Pacific Wrens, Wilson’s Warblers, and
Oregon Juncos. We also catch the occasional Steller’s Jay, Hairy Woodpecker,
Brown Creeper, Hutton’s Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Golden-crowned Kinglet,
Red-breasted Nuthatch, and various others. We’re starting to get more Townsend’s
Warblers, which breed up in Canada/Alaska and winter in this area down to
Mexico. Just this past week we’ve started catching several Fox Sparrows, which
also winter in this area. An exciting one for me was the Western Scrub-Jay,
after having worked with the Florida Scrub-Jays for so long! There was also a
Red-shafted Flicker that I accidentally scared into a net (banders would say it
was expertly scared into the net), an American Redstart (our first vagrant of
the fall), and a Cooper’s Hawk!
The Hawk was awesome – it was barely caught when I found
it (bigger birds are rarely caught because the netting is too fine to actually
catch on anything), but was kind of “swimming” around in the pocket that it was
caught in. At first it looked like it’s foot was kind of tangled, but it was a
very easy extraction. You can’t hold raptors in the “bander’s grip” because
they could potentially have bones in their crop (a kind of food pouch near the
throat) from small animals that they’ve eaten, so you have to hold it in a “raptor
grip” by sticking your index finger between the upper legs, wrapping your thumb
around one leg and squeezing your middle finger into your index finger around
the other leg. Sounds more confusing than it is (finger – leg – finger – leg –
finger). Anyways, I’m not really sure how I got it out so easily – I think it just
decided to be very calm while I grabbed its legs (thankfully – those talons are
nasty!). I got it out and managed to snap a couple pictures before putting a
bag on its head to keep it calm and take it back to the banding lab. (You can’t
put raptors entirely in bags because there often aren’t bags large enough, but
more importantly you don’t want to lose a grip on the legs and have to find
them again, because you’ll likely get a talon through your hand.) I had radioed
back to Wyatt that I had “ONE EFFING AMAZING BIRD!” (we always radio back to
our partners to let them know how many birds we’ve got coming back, if we need
help with an extraction, or if we need help checking the rest of the nets while
we work on an extraction). He went and got Bobby and Kaitlin, who had the day
off but were fortunately hanging around the station, our boss, Renee, who came
to help walk us through our first raptor banding, and the head honcho at our
station, Geoff, who just wanted to watch. Raptors get special “lock-on” bands
because they are able to rip the other bands off with their beaks. The lock-on
bands are thicker and have a special lip that we bend over with a pair of
plyers to “lock” the band in place that they can’t remove. It also means that
it’s a two person job – one person to hold the bird still (me) and one to get
the band on and locked (Wyatt). The BEST part was releasing the bird. With passerines
you just put a hand under them to support them in case they don’t want to fly
off immediately and open the hand that’s gripping them and they take off.
Raptors, however, are much heavier birds, so they’ll drop if you just let go of
them. Instead, you have to THROW THEM! I got into an open area outside of the
banding lab, pulled my arm back, and THREW A COOPER’S HAWK!! It was AMAZING!!
The bird just took off without pause! I wish someone had taken a picture or a
video of that, but my gosh it was incredible. I really hope we catch more
raptors, because I have a strange addiction to throwing birds now.
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| Cooper's Hawk |
It’s hard to top something like throwing a Cooper’s Hawk,
but this might just do it – a couple weeks ago we were told that there is a
competition among fall interns for the title of Lagunitas Intern. Apparently
last fall, Point Blue contacted the Lagunitas Brewing Company about sponsoring
an intern. I’m not sure why exactly they chose the brewery – perhaps because
they are close to the Point Blue headquarters in Petaluma, CA, or perhaps because
Point Blue staff drink a lot of Lagunitas beer, I don’t know. Anyways, they
told the fall interns to write a 1-2 page essay on what the internship with
Point Blue means to them and how it will help them achieve their career goals,
and maybe the brewery would give them a free six-pack. Apparently only one
person submitted an essay, and the others figured they would just let her have
it since she really liked beer. Well, the brewery decided to do better than one
free six-pack and ended up giving her a free case of beer every week for the
next year! (I bet the other interns were pissed…) So, a couple weeks ago we
were told about this competition, and a few days ago it was announced that I WON!!
The beer aspect is definitely super awesome, but it’s also pretty cool that
people thought I had the best essay about how this internship will benefit me.
I’ve already learned a ton so far, and I expect to learn a lot more by the time
this is over!
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| Red-shafted Flicker |
One of the things that I’m definitely looking to improve
are my field ID skills. I often take pictures (if I can) of birds that I see
but don’t know because I don’t really know many North American birds (I think I
actually know more birds of Peru than of North America!). However, that doesn’t
always help, especially if I can’t get the picture. Fortunately, Point Blue has
its 37
th Annual Rich Stallcup Bird-A-Thon happening at the beginning
of October, where each team has 24 hours to identify as many species as
possible by sight or sound (our team is made up of staff and interns at our
field station). We are apparently taking the “green team challenge”, meaning
that we aren’t using vehicles for the duration of our birding, other than to
drive to our starting point. The permanent staff also like to make it more
interesting since they do this every year, so we’ll apparently be dressing up
in evening wear! I saw a picture from last year and the ladies were definitely
wearing dresses and rubber boots. One guy was even dressed up in a full suit!
Who says you can’t be fancy while birding? Anyways, I may not be the biggest
help, but I’m using this as an opportunity to go birding with some of my expert
coworkers and learn their tips for field identification. Overall, the
Bird-A-Thon is one of Point Blue’s annual fundraisers for songbird research,
the internship program, and wildlife conservation in general. So, if you feel
like supporting wildlife research and conservation, feel free to donate to my
website:
http://pointblue.kintera.org/levins
You can also sponsor per species, in which case I would
give you our total after October 6. Any amount is appreciated!
Anyways, this is turning out to be a fairly long post, so
I’ll save some details about our off-sites and the surrounding area for next
time! And maybe our capture highlights, too! I may even go back to my road trip from FL to CA - it was a great adventure.
