Trapping, and Banding and Tagging, Oh my! Part II

   It is Thursday morning, and today is the day we are putting the units on the Broadwings. We gather outside of the Visitor Center at 8 am and discuss our plan of action and then head down to the River of Rocks nest site. Tree climbers from JoshuaTree, Inc., Josh and Jeff, follow Laurie and I to the base of the nest tree. David Barber and visiting raptor expert Marc Bechard set up a table for processing the birds, Zach, field assistant, positions his scope for a clear view of the nest, Terry and Megan are watching it all unfold and Mary is snapping pictures of all the excitement! 

   It is time. Within a flash, Josh climbs to the top of the nest tree and begins prepping his equipment for the lowering of the nestlings. Each young bird is placed in its own cotton bag to keep it safe and quiet and then placed together in a larger durable protective bag for transit.  As the yellow bag slowly makes its way down the tree I am already feeling 100 times better. I grab the precious cargo and make my way out of the rocky woods and onto the path where the team is patiently waiting. The first bird is weighed and then David and Marc begin attaching the back-pack mounted transmitter on the young Broadwing. While that is occurring I carefully hold the other nestling and Laurie starts taking measurements. Just like we did on Wednesday... weight, wing chord, wing flattened, tarsus, culmen, eye color, band number are all documented for each of the three nestlings.
   With  only four units for the 2014 season, we decided to tag only the two larger nestlings at the River of Rocks nest site. So with units successfully attached to two young birds and the last juvenile banded, we placed them all back in the bag and carry them to the nest tree where Jeff and Josh quickly deliver them back into their nest. Hooray! The nestlings are healthy, and two satellite tracking units are safely attached.  We all breathe more easily now. 
   As it was still early we headed over to the other nest site in Shartlesville. Round Two. Both nestlings are carefully lowered down the tree by our professional climbers. Marc and David are waiting to affix a third unit on the heaviest bird. Everything goes smoothly just as before, both nestlings are banded and one receives a satellite transmitter, we send them back up into the nest. We celebrate our success with sandwiches from Heckys of Hamburg, snap some team photos, and drive home elated. 

   With experienced trapper and researcher Marc Bechard visiting for another day, we decided that Friday morning we were going to head out to another two nest sites in hopes of trapping an adult. Leaser Lake was first on the list. A few hours passed, and although a Broadwing sat in a neighboring tree calling, it never dove at the Great Horned Owl decoy. We called it quits there and moved on to the second site in New Ringgold. Set up took longer than usual with mist nets to untangle but within 10 minutes after we took cover in the vegetation and the call of the Great Horned Owl played, an adult dove into our nets! We quickly retrieved it and rushed over to the scale hoping this one weighed enough that we could put on our last unit. AND IT DID! The team worked quickly and efficiently to band, process and tag the female Broadwing from the New Ringgold nest site.  We did high fives all around when the bird flew away, with its transmitter safely attached.
   Another great day, and a piece of the project that we anxiously awaited, is now over. We are all very happy with the results. As of today, Tuesday the 15th, all birds that have been banded and tagged are alive and well. Transmitters are working and sending data. We checked on each bird over the weekend and everyone was safely in their nests. We expect birds to fledge soon and begin moving around. Once they have fledged we will update everyone on their locations as they disperse and in September make their way down South :)  Stay tuned!

the crew on the trail to the River of Rocks nest

Nest Tree, a Chestnut Oak 

Prepping for the climb

Lowering the young from the nest

Marc and David putting on the satellite telemetry unit

Almost finished affixing the unit

side view of the nestling

Laurie and I banding a young at Shartlesville

David Barber with the adult female from the New Ringgold Nest

Marc Bechard and adult female Broadwing

Jeff, Zach, Marc, David, Laurie, Myself, Terry and Megan

Same as before but Laurie took the picture so Josh could jump in!

Field assistant Zach proudly holding a nestling

Trapping, and Banding and Tagging, Oh my! Part I

    As I sit at my computer clicking through hundreds of images from last weeks events, I feel happy and relieved that everything went so smoothly and was a great success. Our week began on Sunday, July 6th when Laurie and I met at the Acopian Center to gather our materials for our first attempt at trapping Broadwings. With the car packed up and ready to go, we made our way to the River of Rocks nest site. After four hours of waiting for an adult to swoop into the mist net we made the decision to call it a day. With no Broadwing trapping on Monday, we had time to discuss the pros and cons to our set up on Sunday. It was nice to have a 'trial day' where we actually got to test everything out in the field and see what worked and what did not.

    Tuesday was a new day and this time we had some friends to help us out at a new location. Dave Hughes, HMS volunteer, experienced raptor trapper and wildlife artist, as well as Adam Carter, HMS Educator and Broadwing project videographer spent their morning at the New Ringgold nest site with us. Unfortunately we were unable to trap any Broadwings during our time there.

    As Wednesday morning approached, I started to feel a little stressed that our methods for trapping were not going to work on this secretive, forest raptor. I stayed positive knowing that this is a learning experience and we are only going to get better from here. With a new location, Shartlesville, and another friend to help us on our mission, Bracken Brown, former HMS trainee and experienced raptor trapper, we set up all of the equipment and waited patiently for the call of the nearby Broadwing. As the fake Great Horned Owl sat behind the mist nets and its call played on a tape player, it took all but 10 minutes for the call of what we believe to have been the female Broadwing. She called and called, bouncing from tree to tree, never taking a dive at the net. 20 minutes later, a second Broadwing calls, louder and closer than the first. Could it be that the female kept an eye on the owl and called until the male came to defend and protect the nest? We think that might have been the case since the male was the one to sweep in, taking a dive at the owl, and getting trapped in the net.
    We all rush over and carefully take the Broadwing out of the net and bring it over to our processing area. [[ The rush that you feel in this moment is crazy... you are a mixture of emotions.... excited, nervous, anxious, relieved, happy, etc. ]] With the Broadwing in Bracken's hand, Laurie begins taking measurements of the bird as I document them on our data sheet. Weight, wing chord, wing flattened, tarsus, culmen, eye color, crop are all documented as well as the number of the USFWS band and the color code for this individual. After it's banded, we snap a few pictures of our first trapped Broadwing and then release it back into the wild.  Because it was a smaller male we could not put a transmitter on it nevertheless we are happy to have it color-marked so we can identify it in the future. A great day for the Broadwing Project crew!

Laurie setting up the tape player next to the Great Horned Owl decoy

A great look at the Broadwing from the back

Weighing the bird

Measuring tail band

Color code for this individual is Blue Blue

a very happy grad student!

Laurie giving it a pep talk about heading South and returning next year :)