November 01, 2007 - Banding tells life storiesThe Suffolk Times • November 1, 2007 • 13A
Banding tells life stories
The banding of birds is a fascinating pursuit for
over 6,(X)l banders in the United States. The average
person has probably heard about bird banding but
few have gotten close enough to a true bander, as we
have with George Rowsom of Orient.
He started banding birds in 1955 and for the
past 14 years he's banded birds in Moores Woods.
Recently he sent me the list of birds he banded this
fall during migration season at Dam Pond, and I
thought it would be interesting to my readers to see
the species of birds he bands.
From September through Oct. 17, for 11 days, for
one to two hours a day, he
FOCUS banded the following birds:
four goldfinch, one black-and-
ON white warbler, three chickadees,
two titmice, two white- breasted
NATURE nuthatch, three Carolina wrens,
b Paul one house wren, one downy
Y woodpecker, four towhees, one
Stoutenburgh white - throated sparrow, two
swamp sparrows, one seaside
sparrow, three junco, one gray - checked thrush, one
Northern water thrush, 20 catbirds, four Northern
cardinals, nine common yellowthroat, 32 myrtle war-
blers, one prairie warbler, four white -eyed vireos and
11 ruby - crowned kinglets.
The highlight of this report was the gray- cheeked
thrush, which is rather rare in our area. They nest in
the far North, where trees are stunted or replaced by
low bushes They winter in Central America. The one
George caught in his mist net was on its way south.
George is well equipped for the passion of bird
banding. In his early years of banding he banded
ducks on Seneca Lake in 1955 with Dr. Richard
Ryan, his biology professor, adviser and friend at Ho-
bart University. Later training came when he worked
with James Pion on passerine banding at The Nature
Conservancy property in Great Neck. He broadened
his knowledge of bird aging and sexing of birds in the
mountains of Pennsylvania and Big Sur, Calif. So you
see, bird banding can be a serious undertaking.
For the past 14 years George has been participat-
ing in the Institute for Bird Populations through
his program in Moores Woods. This means that
during the breeding season of June and July he has
to set up his Wrist nets in the same place and open
and close them at the same time each year. He uses
nine 30- foot -long by eight - foot -high nets, which
are open for six hours starting 10 minutes after
sunrise. Including the setting up of the nets and tak-
ing them down, the sessions last between eight and
nine hours and are done on seven roughly equally
spaced days in June and July.
The birds captured get a uniquely numbered light
aluminum band placed on one leg. Each band now
has an 800 phone number for reporting to the band-
ing lab at the U.S. Geological Survey, which has
moved into the electronic age and now has a Web site
where you can report a band and find out when and
where the bird was originally banded.
Some of the data George records for each bird is
age, sex, brood patch or cloacal protrusion, presence
of fat, body and flight feather molt, flight feather
wear, presence of juvenile and adult flight feathers
on the same bird (indicates a second -year bird in the
spring), wing length and weight.
Twice George had birds caught in his mist nets that
others have previously banded: one catbird that was
originally banded in New Jersey and one song spar-
row originally banded by Helen Hayes on Little Gull
Island off the East End of Long Island.
To date, George has captured and released about
2,000 birds in Moores Woods. About 14 percent of
the captures are birds he had banded in previous
years. The greatest number of birds that have been
captured in his mist nets to date are robins, catbirds
and wood thrushes.
Bird banding is one of the most useful tools in the
modern study of wild birds. When banded birds are
captured, released alive and reported from some-
where else, the movements of those birds can he
reconstructed. In this way we have learned that some
species go south in one pathway and return north by
Here we see
George Rowsom
at work banding
birds as they come
through on migration.
He is holding a
Swainson's thrush,
which he will put a
leg band on and
then release.
Suffolk Times photo
by Andrea Rowsom
another pathway. A classic example of this is the in-
formation gathered for the Arctic tern, which makes
the longest migration flight of any living species,
making an annual round -trip flight of 25,000 miles.
The migration route used by this species has been
determined by band recoveries in part.
One of the first records of a bird band being used
was in 1595, when Henry IV's peregrine falcon was
lost in France and recaptured 24 hours later in Malta,
1,350 miles away (56 miles per hour). The first record
in America of a band being used was in 1803, when
John James Audubon, the famous American natural-
ist and painter, tied silver cords on the legs of a brood
of young phoebes and was able to identify two of the
brood the following year when they returned.
And so an old tradition of banding birds is being
carried on today locally by George Rowsom and his
mist nets in Moores Woods and Dam Pond.
Paul Stoutenburgh can be reached by email at
focusnat@optonline.net.
bF
4.
t
F,Wiolk Tithes photo Uy George Iiuwsuni Suffolk Times photos by Barbara Sloule
Left: This gray- cheeked thrush, rather rare to our area, was caught in George Rowsom's mist net and will be banded and released. Middle: This downy wood-
pecker was surprised when he found himself entangled in a mist net. He will have a band put on his leg and then be released. Right: One of our common
warblers is the yellowthroat, which occasionally stays with us all winter long. This was one of the birds caught in the mist nets when they were set up at
Dam Pond this fall.
e Suffolk Times • November 1, 2007
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Suffolk Times photo
by Andrea Rowsom
Suffolk Times photo by George
The banding of birds is a fascinating pursuit for
over 6,000 banders in the United States. The average
person has probably heard about bird banding but
few have gotten close enough to a true bander, as we
have with George Rowsom of Orient.
He started banding birds in 1955 and for the
past 14 years he's banded birds in Moores Wtbods.
Recently he sent me the list of birds he banded this
fall during migration season at Dam Pond, and I
thought it would be interesting to my readers to see
the species of birds he bands.
From September through Oct. 17, for 11 days, for
one to two hours a day, he
Focus banded the following birds:
four goldfinch, one black-and-
0 N white warbler, three chickadees
two titmice, two white - breasted
NATURE nuthatch, three Carolina wrens,
by Paul one house wren, one downy
woodpecker, four towhees, one
Stoutenburgh white - throated sparrow, two
swamp sparrows, one seaside
sparrow, three junco, one gray - cheeked thrush, one
Northern water thrush, 20 catbirds, four Northern
cardinals, nine common yellowthroat, 32 myrtle war-
blers, one prairie warbler, four white -eyed vireos and
11 ruby - crowned.kinglets.
The highlight of this report was the gray - cheeked
thrush, which is rather rare in our area. They nest in
the far North, where trees are stunted or replaced by
low bushes. They winter in Central America. The one
George caught in his mist net was on its way south.
George is well equipped for the passion of bird
banding. In his early 'years of banding he banded
ducks on Seneca Lake in 1955 with Dr. Richard
Ryan, his biology professor, adviser and friend at Ho-
bart University. Later training came when he worked
with James Pion on passerine banding at The Nature
Conservancy property in Great Neck. He broadened
his knowledge of bird aging and sexing of birds in the
mountains of Pennsylvania and Big Sur, Calif. So you
see; bird banding can be a serious undertaking.
For the past 14 years George has been participat-
ing in the Institute for Bird Populations through
his program. in Moores Woods. This means that,
during the breeding seasop of June and July he has
to set up his mist nets in the same place and open
and close them at the same time each year. He uses
nine 30- foot -long by eight- foot -high nets, which
are open for six hours starting 10 minutes after
sunrise. Including the setting up of the nets and tak-
ing them down, the sessions last between eight and
nine hours and are done on seven roughly equally
spaced days in June and July.
The birds captured get a uniquely numbered light
aluminum band placed on one leg. Each band now
has an 800 phone number for reporting to the band-
ing lab at the U.S. Geological Survey, which has
moved into the electronic age and now has a Web site
where you can report a band and find out when and
where the bird was originally banded.
Some of the data George records for each bird is
age, sex, brood patch or cloacal protrusion, presence
of fat, body and flight feather molt, flight feather
Suffolk Times photos by Barbara
wear, presence of juvenile and adult flight feathers
on the same bird (indicates a second -year bird in the
spring), wing length and weight.
Twice George had birds caught, in his mist nets thal
others have previously banded: one catbird that was
originally banded in New Jersey and one song spar-
row originally banded by Helen Hayes on Little Gull
Island off the East End of Long Island..
To date, George has captured and released about
2,000 birds in Moores Woods. About 14 percent of
the captures are birds he had banded in previous
years. The greatest number of birds that have been
captured in his mist nets to date are robins, catbirds
and wood thrushes.
Bird banding is one of the most useful tools in the
modern study of wild birds. When banded birds are
captured, released alive and reported from some-
where else, the movements of those birds can be
reconstructed. In this way we have learned that some
species go south in one pathwav and return north by
MIUMUr pathway. H classic example of this is the in-
formation gathered for the Arctic tern, which makes
the longest migration flight of any living species,
making an annual round -trip flight of 25,000 miles.
The migration route used by this species has been
determined by band recoveries in part.
One of the first records of a bird band being used
as in 1595, when Henry IV's peregrine falcon was
lost in France and recaptured 24 hours later in Malta
1,350 miles away (56 miles per hour). The first record
in America of a band being used was in 1803, when
John James Audubon, the famous American natural-
ist and painter, tied silver cords on the legs of a brooc
of young phoebes and was able to identify two of the
brood the following year when they returned.
And so an old tradition of banding birds is being
carried on today locally by George Rowsom and his
mist nets in Moores Whodq and nan, P,,,,,t