There is a rich history of bird banding at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary that stretches back long before the opening of our present station in fall 2014. The earliest known records are those of the Austin Ornithological Research Station, established by Dr. Oliver L. Austin Sr. and Jr. in 1929. The Austins and their intrepid crew banded […]
One of the best things about the return of bird banding at Wellfleet Bay is the increasing amount of data. Our master bander James Junda has completed his report for the fall 2016 season. It was his third fall migration here. Besides reporting total number of birds, species, number of species per 100 net hours […]
“Why band birds? Can’t you detect bird species without capturing them?” These are questions I have been asked several times. As a researcher, I’ve worked on a variety of projects involving both banding as well as point count surveys, which are conducted by standing at a fixed point and counting all of the individual birds […]
Now that fall migration bird banding is under way, our banding demonstrations have resumed at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and Friday mornings through October. Seeing wild birds so close is an unforgettable experience. But what can you learn by watching banders at work? Banding, a basic and time-tested form of bird research, collects data that tracks […]
True, “Where in Wellfleet?” would be a more appropriate title, but it’s not quite as catchy. Bandito is a much beloved Piping Plover, known by all coastal waterbird staff and many volunteers at Wellfleet Bay. He is the only banded (colorful leg bands used for identification) plover that we monitor and he is quite a […]
As bird researcher James Junda and his team begin a second spring of bird banding at Wellfleet Bay, there’s a lot of anticipation about what they may see this year. Getting the chance to view a songbird (and sometimes a raptor) in the hand is a special opportunity. Not only do you get to hold a bird and […]
As any new birder knows, identifying birds beyond the backyard regulars can be frustratingly slow-going. But volunteer Mary Lou Heintz was determined to learn her birds. An avid fan of all things outdoors, she took an intensive weekend course in bird banding when she lived in Connecticut. A year ago, Mary Lou moved to Harwich and wanted a […]
What are the birds of Wellfleet Bay up to in springtime? We won’t have a clear picture for awhile, but we are slowly gaining information. In a just released report, master bander and wildlife biologist James Junda provides a range of data on the birds banded and re-captured between April and May. Bird banding, a fundamental tool of bird research, requires […]
Our bird banding station has opened for spring business. As of mid-April, we were seeing what you’d pretty much expect. But, as always, getting such a close look at even the most common birds is a pleasure. Tree swallows, hopped up on breeding hormones, have inadvertently flown into the mist nets a few times. This […]
It won’t be long before the mist nets are up again here at the sanctuary and our bird banding team returns to record the streams of birds that pass over Wellfleet Bay in April, May and June. In his final report on the fall 2014 migration, master bander and wildlife biologist James Junda notes there was […]