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McLaughlin Natural Reserve

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

Hummingbird Monitoring Continues at Mclaughlin Reserve in 2009
Come And Join Us!

Did you know that Lake County hosts the only hummingbird banding station in California north of the SF Bay? The McLaughlin Reserve has been a monitoring and training site for the Hummingbird Monitoring Network (HMN) since March 2007, and our third season of banding will begin in March 2009. The hummingbird monitoring team at McLaughlin is always interested in considering new team-members who are enthusiastic and willing to make a moderate time commitment. We invite you to apply to become a part of our banding team! 

The HMN is a non-profit organization which began in 2002 with a few sites in Arizona and California and has grown each year since that time, with sites currently spanning from British Columbia to Texas (see http://www.hummonnet.org for more information). The objective of the organization is to promote the conservation of hummingbirds through habitat preservation, research, and education at population monitoring sites through Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The program runs each year from early March through late October, with banding sessions occurring at two-week intervals. All banding stations of the HMN follow this protocol, resulting in data on hummingbirds being collected in a synchronized fashion across western North America.The banding program thus provides information on migration routes, breeding success, population trends, and habitat use. If some species are found to be declining, data from the monitoring program will be used to guide preservation. At some of the monitoring sites, additional information is collected for research on genetics or behavior, depending on the interests of the banding team members.

What do we do during a banding session? At each session, we set up a banding station and two traps with feeders before dawn, and then monitor, capture, and process hummingbirds for the next five hours. During a typical session in late spring at McLaughlin, we might capture and "process" as many as 40 birds, and monitor nearly 2,000 visits to the two feeders!  Each banding session requires at least two banders and two banding assistants. Banding assistants monitor birds visiting the feeders, operate traps, remove captured birds and transport them to the banders, record data collected by the banders as they process birds, and feed and release birds that have been processed. Banders, in addition to being responsible for doing "banding assistant" tasks, go through additional training and a federal permitting process that allows them to identify each captured hummingbird to species, fit a tiny aluminum band with a six-digit number on the leg of unbanded birds, collect a variety of information including age and sex, feather molt, and breeding condition, and at McLaughlin we also collect feather samples that can be used for DNA analysis. At each session, team members rotate through the various tasks in order to keep up on their skills and have a fun and interesting banding session. Each team member does not have to be present at each banding session; after an initial training period during which a new team member gains the skills to be effective at all "assistant" tasks, there is plenty of flexibility to allow for a person to skip occasional sessions. However, in order to keep honed on skills, we try to make sure each member of our banding team participates in at least half of the yearly banding sessions. Minimum time commitment is therefore about 6 hours per session, with at least 10 sessions per year once a team member is fully trained.

The project is not for late sleepers, but even for early risers daybreak can come awfully early in June and July! Our team members are always welcome to stay overnight at the McLaughlin field station the night before a session, which works quite nicely for those team members who have a 2 hour drive to get here!  Because of work schedules, we have thus far held our banding sessions on Saturdays or Sundays, but there is flexibility for holding them on a week day depending on the needs of the various team members who might join up.

Interesting and fun? Absolutely! But it is also challenging and exacting, as the welfare of these tiny creatures in our first priority, and careful attention is needed in collecting and recording the data. This is a very rewarding experience for a person who is interested in contributing to a scientific endeavor and has a passion for animals. Visitors are also welcome - whether you are considering participating or are just curious to see how it is done.

Please contact either Paul Aigner or Cathy Koehler, the project leaders for the McLaughlin banding station, for more information.

Email: mclaughlin@ucdavis.edu
Phone: (707) 995-9005.

Stewardship Opportunities (coming soon)