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Banding Birds: BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO, OCTOBER 4,1978 A Lif elong Hobby SECTION TWO A small aluminum band fits comfortably around the leg of this swainson thrush. The bands are sized according to the width of a bird's leg. Forrest must keep detailed records of all the birds he bands and send this information to Ottawa periodically. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" they say and to bird bander Forrest Dilling, no truer words were ever spoken. Forrest, who lives at 147 Queen St. in Bowmanville, bas been banding birds for nearly 40 years and estimates he bas banded over 5,000. Birds are banded by fastening small serial- numbered aluminum rings around one of their legs. The reason for doing this is to aid researchers in tracing the migration patterns of the various species. Markings on a bird's wing plumage help Forrest to determine its sex. Story and Photos by Maureen Corkery But before banding, the birds must be caught and Forrest employs two different methods to do this. To snare ground-feeding birds such as robins, he uses cages with grain inside to attract them. The cages are constructed in such a way that once inside, the birds can't get out. Sometimes string is used as bait to draw the birds inside, for in the spring they are looking for such material to construct their nests. Uses Nets If you happen to visit Forrest early one Fall morning you'll probably find him sipping coffee at the window facing out onto his side yard. He's waiting for unwary birds shooting low through the trees in search of food to get caught in his nets. The almost invisible black nylon nets are the most frequent means Forrest uses to trap birds for banding. During spring and fall migration, he sets two up on the edge of his yard which borders on a tree-filled valley. Forrest explains that these nets, which resemble badmin- ton nets in the way they are set up, did not come into popular use until the 1950s. Since cages were the only means used before this time, ground birds were all you could catch, says Forrest. The nets enable banders to catch a much bigger variety of birds. The most active time of the day for the nets is early morning from about 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. and in the evening after 5 p.m. Most birds are feeding at these times whereas during the rest of the day, says Forrest, "they are sitting in the bushes resting for migration." The birds catch their wings and feet in the nets. "Most will lie quietly until I come and get them out," Forrest says. Once he retrieves them from the net, he puts them in a small cage in preparation for banding. To quieten them down he often takes them inside and puts a dark cover over the cage. They sit quietly when this is done. You have to be careful how many and what kinds of birds you put in a cage together, he says, because they have a tendency to fight with each other, especially the grossbeaks. "They bite each other on the wing and sometimes cripple one another by biting the shoulder." Hazards At this stage of his bird- banding career, Forrest is an experienced handler of birds but be has had some casualties. He had the talon of a sharp-shinned hawk pinned through one of his fingers while banding that species at Point Pelee Park and gross- beaks sometimes drew blood. The trick in handling fighters such as these, Forrest has learned, is to feed them a pencil first and once they grasp this in their beak he grabs them around the neck. Another hazard of the job, laughs Forrest, is that "they sometimes backfire on you when you have them in your hand." Forrest belongs to the Ontario Bird Banding Association which sends out bulletins periodically and they often include tips on how to handle birds. The light-weight aluminum bands are issued from the Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States for all of North America so there is no serial-number duplication. The Fish and Wildlife Service in Canada distributes them to licensed banders in this country. The bands come in various sizes to fit comfortably on each bird's leg - the big and small. They have a split whieh is opened and closed around the bird's leg with pliers. This design ensures the band won't catch on anything, explains Forrest. Once the band is on the bird, Forrest releases it. If the bird is lying on its back in the palm of his hand and he opens his band to let it go the bird usually stays there for a few minutes before it flies away. "They seem to be kind of hypnotized," observes Forrest as one angry bluejay, upon regaining his freedom, flew to a nearby tree and gave Forrest a loud scolding. Records Kept Forrest must keep a record of the birds he bas banded which he sends to Ottawa once TRAPPED! Next-to-invisible net snags unsuspecting bird. a year. When he bands a bird he must write down its species number, the date it was banded, the band number, size of the bird, its age, sex and where it was banded. This information is stored by the government on IBM cards. A species number rather than a name is used in these records for reference because, says Forrest, "Some birds are known by different names in different territories." For instance a yellow-shafted flicker is also called an eye-holder or just plain flicker. The number 412 is used to identify this bird to avoid any confusion. The age of a bird can be determined by such things as its plumage, moults and the colour of its mouth. If a blue jay has a black mouth and tongue. it is an adult bird but a pink mouth signifies a young bird, explains Forrest. The sex of a bird is more difficult to ascertain, especially in the autumn when "75 per cent of the birds that come through are imnature. It's quite bard to teli the sex when they are young birds." Plumage Gives Clues In the spring when birds are in their mating plumage "you can distinguish the male from the female quite easily," says Forrest, "but when they come back through in the fall, they look very much the same." Take the scarlet tanager for example. In the spring, the male is scarlet in color and the fall, however, they are both the same color and you have to same color and you have to look very carefully for certain markings which distinguish their sex. "Each bird bas some distinguishing mark that the other doesn't, yet to the ordinary person they look the same unless he knows what these different markings are," says Forrest. Forrect recalls a time when his son took a young bird to school for show and tell. Forrest could not determine the sex of the bird so in his list of information about the bird, Forrest wrote "sex unknown." His son returned from school that day and reported smugly that he knew something his father didn't know - the sex of the bird. A disbelieving father asked how in the world he knew that and the boy replied, "because it laid an egg in the cage at schôol." Records must be kept properly and up-to-date or else a bird bander's permit may not be renewed by the government. Forrest notes it is not as easy to obtain a permit as it once was. To get one now you must be doing a special project on a special species. When Forrest first applied for his in 1939, he said he was using the birds for educational purposes to get the children familiar with different species. His children and grandchildren used to take them to school. Forrest says he enjoys banding the highly-coloured birds the most. "The longer I get into it the deeper I get into it. Each year I find a new species and have to study up on it." Birds Located When a banded bird is found, either dead on the road or in another bander's net, tfe number on the band and the location of its discovery is forwarded to Fish and Wildlife. It files the information for its future use and also sends it to the original bander. Forrest bas records of birds he has banded being found as far away as Alabama, California and Florida and as close as a few streets over in Bowmanville or in nearby Toronto. There are five different fly-ways birds use during migration Forrest points out. They are the Atlantic, Mississippi, East, West and Pacific. Something that baffles Forrest is that of all the warblers he had banded, and they have been many, not one has been recovered. This could be due to the fact they are so small he says. "They may die in forest and be covered by leaves or eaten by rodents," Forrest feels it is now time to give up his beloved hobby of banding and pass it on to someone else. He is training naturalist Paul Bridges, who already knows quite a bit about birds for the job and hopes he will follow faithfully in his footsteps. Puppets Are Valuable Tools In The Classroom Teachers Told By Maureen Corkery A puppet can act as an assistant teacher or even a disciplinarian, teachers were told last week during a Professional Activity Day held in the Hampton Junior Public School. Ken McKay, the executive secretary of the Ontario Puppetry Association, explained that puppets are an invaluable classroom tool. Mr. McKay, who is writing a book on Canadian puppetry, was taking part in just one of approximately 70 sessions held in the Northumberland Newcastle area during Pro- fessional Activity Day. Topics at the sessions ranged from drama to mathematics. Ken McKay explained that the teacher can use puppets to interpret literature, history and culture. He said the social interaction between children and puppets can be useful. Ken recalled he has seen children who are very shy or who have a speech defect which is not caused physically lose their problems through the use of puppets. People who have used puppets with autistic children claim a great deal of success. Children who will never speak have spoken to a puppet, he said. Ken recommended that dialogue for puppets be ad- libbed rather than memorized. "It is far more creative and worthwhile if they (the puppets) come up with their own lines", he said. He suggested that teachers could have a puppet newscaster to deliver current events- Ken also stressed that the makeup of the puppets must not be too detailed and he demonstrated how to make some puppets using recycled material available around the house. He showed how a gourd can make an excellent dragon's head and how a pair of glasses transforms a white mop into a wise old man. Other materials which can be used to make interesting characters include paper bags, gloves, egg cartons, styrofoam cups, pieces of fur, fabric and paper plates. "Puppets," Ken said, "can carry the mood without being too complicated." Last week's workshop in Hampton was one of some 70 sessions which were held through the jurisdiction of the Northumberland Newcastle Board of Education. The sessions on subjects from math to drama were focused on the implementing of Ministry of Education guidelines. Last Friday was the first Professional Activity Day of the school year and the theme of the day was curriculum development. Board of Education staff plus outside resource teachers recruited from teacher training institutions, the Ministry of Education, conservation authorities and teachers' federations assisted in the day's activities. Last week's session on puppetry was one of three seminars held at the Hampton Junior Public School. The other two topics were movement and drama. Teachers from Courtice, Enniskillen, Hampton, Lord Elgin, Maple Grove, Mitchell's Corners, Ontario St. and Waverley schools were in attendance. Parents were also invited to attend the Professional Activity Day. Three mothers with children at the Waverley Public School all expressed interest in what had gone on during the day. Marilyn Lemke, Evelyn Kerne and Margaret Cairns all agreed that "if the teachers carry back to the children all they have learned, the students will have a great time." These women also suggested that more parents should attend the Professional Activity Days. They said that by attending a PA day last week they were able to better appreciate work that goes into school programs. "I think the teachers need to get together once in a while to discuss their problens and work out ways to keep school interesting,"' said Mrs., Cairns. Puppet demonstration during PA day at the Hampton Junior Public School last Friday. %Imm P c - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... .................................