They say a picture is worth a thousand
words.
Luckily for you, I settled for 417.
Two weeks ago, I was photographing
Caspian terns along the shore in Olympia. After downloading the photos, I
noticed that one of the birds had been banded and I could clearly read the code
A233.
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| the pattern of colored bands helps scientists to identify where and when a bird was banded, even if they can't read the numbers. the silver colored banded is a U.S. federal band |
Having never reported a banded bird, I
didn't know who to contact. A quick web search revealed the U.S. Geologic
Survey Patuxent Wildlife
Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory.
The Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) is
an integrated scientific program established in 1920 supporting the collection,
archiving, management and dissemination of information from banded and marked
birds in North America. This information is used to monitor the status
and trends of resident and migratory bird populations. Because birds are good
indicators of the health of the environment, the status and trends of bird
populations are critical for identifying and understanding many ecological
issues and for developing effective science, management and conservation
practices.
The BBL, since 1923 and in
collaboration with the Bird Banding Office (BBO) of the Canadian Wildlife
Service, administer the North American Bird Banding Program (NABBP), which
manages more than 77 million archived banding records and more than 5 million
records of encounters. In addition, each year approximately 1 million
bands are shipped from the BBL to banders in the United States and Canada, and
nearly 100,000 band encounter reports are submitted into the BBL systems.
Which brings me back to numbers… and
counting
We are currently hearing a lot about
data driven science decision making. What we don't hear a lot about is where
that data comes from.
In the world of science, data comes
from boots on the ground observation, counting, recording and reporting. Much
of the data comes from professionals doing field work. Increasingly, data comes
from citizen scientists like you and me.
Citizen science is a fancy name for
going out and volunteering for your favorite environmental group's next survey.
It could be Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count or surveying the Amazon
with Earth Watch
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| A437 is the tern in the center of the photograph |
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| C988 does not follow the crowd |
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| this bird has 4 bands, but does not have a easy to read number |
Here in Thurston County, citizen
scientists can make a difference by spending one hour a week monitoring a summer
resident Purple martin colony. Monitoring these large swallows as they nest and
reproduce helps scientists understand the impact of climate, pesticide use and
water quality which in turn helps planners and decision makers plan for the
future.
To volunteer to monitor Purple martins in the Olympia area, visit Stream Team at https://streamteam.kinsta.cloud/hands-on-science/#purple-martin
Here is a video introduction these fascinating birds
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| a male Purple martin flies past the nest box as the female peeks out the boxes are numbered to help with data collection |
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| there are roughly 2 dozen nest boxes in the colony monitored by Stream Team of Thurston County |
I hope see you on my next citizen
science adventure. You can count on seeing me there
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| these female Purple martins are much lighter in color than the males |
To volunteer to monitor Purple martins in the Olympia area, visit Stream Team