Duck Banding 2010.
Sep. 13th, 2010 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
navygreenThe start of the Duck Banding story begins HERE, and this just the pick-up. This is a picture-heavy post, beware!
The duck banding done at J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge is a special treat for the 7th graders at Memorial Middle School. Each year, the seventh grade classes return permission forms just to be considered for the trip, but only 20 students are drawn out of all slips received. A.J. was just lucky enough to be one of those winning the experience, and he was so excited!
The other entry covers a lot of the morning, and the getting there, so I'm just going to jump right into the how-to's of banding in this post. The process was more involved than I had imagined!
After we heard the feed rockets go off, the bus crept toward the water a bit more, and then we piled out. The feed rockets are mounted on steel poles, and the end of each rocket is attached to a string on the apron of the large nets used to capture the ducks. The barley rockets shoot out, the nets sailing along on the end of them, and the ducks flock and swarm to eat, captured at once. It's really a very cool procedure.
Ducks trapped in the nets.
Now, depending on several factors (temperature, sounds present, etc.), there can be just a small number of ducks each morning, or there can be hundreds. A.J. and his classmates were at the Refuge on the first day of duck banding "season," and around 300 birds were captured. Because of the large number, the students had to work quickly. The ducks are frightened, and they flutter and fight under the nets, causing them to sometimes injure themselves and be at risk for overheating.
Trapped duck.
A team of wildlife handlers was on-site to run the process and enlist the students' help. The handlers would carefully pull each duck from the nets and hand them to a student, classifying each bird as they went (mallard, pin tail, etc). The student would then carry the duck to the appropriate caging area and hand off the duck to a different handler.
Students taking ducks from the a handler.
Now, occasionally, the duck would fluster and flutter before the student had a good hold on its neck. That, or the duck would be so calm that the kid would become too comfortable holding it (picture holding a baby), and the duck would seize the opportunity of lax hold to make a break for it. I'd estimate probably ten ducks went rogue and managed to get away before being caged.
Escaping to freedom.
The kids each handled probably 15 or more ducks, just in getting them from the nets to the cages. It was a flurry of motion, trying to get the birds sorted into many, many cages and out of the nets.
A.J. with a duck.
The nets and the cages weren't far apart, and after a bit, A.J.'s science teacher Mr. Walz began helping the caging process along with the handlers. The ducks would really flap and struggle in the hand-off, sensing their captive holds lessen.
A.J. hands of a duck to his teacher.
By the time all the birds were out of nets and caged, the sun was peeking over the horizon. It didn't feel any warmer though, and the kids' fingers in thin rubber gloves were really hurting from the cold. Still, they kept plugging along, having too much fun to stop. Even *my* fingers were cold, and I was just holding a camera!
Next, the students began grabbing ducks from assigned cages to bring to the handlers for banding. The bands put on each duck are individually coded, and they are used to track the migration pattern of the birds. Before each duck is banded, they are determined male or female, and then their "parts" are searched to decide whether they are adult or immature. There are four codes for bands:
In addition to those bands, roughly 100 "reward bands" were added to the birds at random. These were green bands, and when a hunter finds one after downing a duck, he can mail it back to the Refuge for a $100 reward. This is an incentive to get hunters to actually return the bands and help the migration tracking process. Of all the ducks processed the day we were there, only one duck was found to be already banded, and it was at least a few years old, the handlers said. The band was beginning to grow into the duck's leg. :-(
Banding each bird took a minute or two (determining the sex and maturity as well), so the students had a bit of "hang time" with each duck while waiting in line. As A.J. stood in line with his first duck, he noticed it was injured:
A.J.'s injured duck. (The wing was swollen and bleeding.)
When he got to the handler, the man decided to let the injured bird free instead. Because the bird couldn't fly well, he told A.J. to walk it directly to the water's edge and set it free.
The duck swam off pretty quickly, happy to be away from the bustle of people, I'm sure! A.J. went back to the cages and grabbed another duck, and this process continued for a while. In the meantime, I became distracted by the gorgeous views:
Foooooaaaaaaammmmmm on the waaaaaaaaa-ter... (fire in the sky!)
Truly, the morning was breathtaking, and we couldn't have hoped for better views or weather!
A.J. is double-ducked.
A.J. and a classmate with their ducks.
A.J.'s teachers. Don't they just look so fun?!
Mrs. Strand - World Geography
Mr. Walz - Science
With about fifty or so ducks left and time to spare, the handlers began letting the students do the actual banding, too. Each kid was helped to position their duck between their legs (for stability), and then the handler talked them through the process. The bands were little metal rings that had to be clamped tightly around the duck's leg.
A.J. squeezes tight on his band for a secure fit.
A.J. with his final duck.
After A.J. had banded a few ducks, he left to help Mr. Walz return the empty cages to the truck. The cages aren't left on the site because the Refuge changes watersides each day in the area.
A.J. helps Mr. Walz return a crate.
And by that time, the view had changed a bit more on the landscape:
Lastly, the kids helped some of the handlers to roll the nets back up. They have to be re-rolled at the end of each day to prepare them for the next time that particular waterside is used. Since things need to be as quiet as possible for the ducks before sunrise, everything is prepped before leaving the site each time for the next time.
Rolling the nets up all together.
After piling back into the school bus, we headed to the nearest little town of Newburg, North Dakota (note that we were closer to Canada than we were to Minot!) for a rest stop at their only little gas station, as well as some mid-morning snacks. Then it was back on the bus and back to the base for the rest of their school day. We returned just in time for the kids to head to their 4th period class. :-)
And my favorite picture from the day:
A duck flies into the sunlit horizon.
The duck banding done at J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge is a special treat for the 7th graders at Memorial Middle School. Each year, the seventh grade classes return permission forms just to be considered for the trip, but only 20 students are drawn out of all slips received. A.J. was just lucky enough to be one of those winning the experience, and he was so excited!
The other entry covers a lot of the morning, and the getting there, so I'm just going to jump right into the how-to's of banding in this post. The process was more involved than I had imagined!
After we heard the feed rockets go off, the bus crept toward the water a bit more, and then we piled out. The feed rockets are mounted on steel poles, and the end of each rocket is attached to a string on the apron of the large nets used to capture the ducks. The barley rockets shoot out, the nets sailing along on the end of them, and the ducks flock and swarm to eat, captured at once. It's really a very cool procedure.
Ducks trapped in the nets.
Now, depending on several factors (temperature, sounds present, etc.), there can be just a small number of ducks each morning, or there can be hundreds. A.J. and his classmates were at the Refuge on the first day of duck banding "season," and around 300 birds were captured. Because of the large number, the students had to work quickly. The ducks are frightened, and they flutter and fight under the nets, causing them to sometimes injure themselves and be at risk for overheating.
Trapped duck.
A team of wildlife handlers was on-site to run the process and enlist the students' help. The handlers would carefully pull each duck from the nets and hand them to a student, classifying each bird as they went (mallard, pin tail, etc). The student would then carry the duck to the appropriate caging area and hand off the duck to a different handler.
Students taking ducks from the a handler.
Now, occasionally, the duck would fluster and flutter before the student had a good hold on its neck. That, or the duck would be so calm that the kid would become too comfortable holding it (picture holding a baby), and the duck would seize the opportunity of lax hold to make a break for it. I'd estimate probably ten ducks went rogue and managed to get away before being caged.
Escaping to freedom.
The kids each handled probably 15 or more ducks, just in getting them from the nets to the cages. It was a flurry of motion, trying to get the birds sorted into many, many cages and out of the nets.
A.J. with a duck.
The nets and the cages weren't far apart, and after a bit, A.J.'s science teacher Mr. Walz began helping the caging process along with the handlers. The ducks would really flap and struggle in the hand-off, sensing their captive holds lessen.
A.J. hands of a duck to his teacher.
By the time all the birds were out of nets and caged, the sun was peeking over the horizon. It didn't feel any warmer though, and the kids' fingers in thin rubber gloves were really hurting from the cold. Still, they kept plugging along, having too much fun to stop. Even *my* fingers were cold, and I was just holding a camera!
Next, the students began grabbing ducks from assigned cages to bring to the handlers for banding. The bands put on each duck are individually coded, and they are used to track the migration pattern of the birds. Before each duck is banded, they are determined male or female, and then their "parts" are searched to decide whether they are adult or immature. There are four codes for bands:
AM = adult male
AF = adult female
IM = immature male
IF = immature female
In addition to those bands, roughly 100 "reward bands" were added to the birds at random. These were green bands, and when a hunter finds one after downing a duck, he can mail it back to the Refuge for a $100 reward. This is an incentive to get hunters to actually return the bands and help the migration tracking process. Of all the ducks processed the day we were there, only one duck was found to be already banded, and it was at least a few years old, the handlers said. The band was beginning to grow into the duck's leg. :-(
Banding each bird took a minute or two (determining the sex and maturity as well), so the students had a bit of "hang time" with each duck while waiting in line. As A.J. stood in line with his first duck, he noticed it was injured:
A.J.'s injured duck. (The wing was swollen and bleeding.)
When he got to the handler, the man decided to let the injured bird free instead. Because the bird couldn't fly well, he told A.J. to walk it directly to the water's edge and set it free.
The duck swam off pretty quickly, happy to be away from the bustle of people, I'm sure! A.J. went back to the cages and grabbed another duck, and this process continued for a while. In the meantime, I became distracted by the gorgeous views:
Foooooaaaaaaammmmmm on the waaaaaaaaa-ter... (fire in the sky!)
Truly, the morning was breathtaking, and we couldn't have hoped for better views or weather!
A.J. is double-ducked.
A.J. and a classmate with their ducks.
A.J.'s teachers. Don't they just look so fun?!
Mrs. Strand - World Geography
Mr. Walz - Science
With about fifty or so ducks left and time to spare, the handlers began letting the students do the actual banding, too. Each kid was helped to position their duck between their legs (for stability), and then the handler talked them through the process. The bands were little metal rings that had to be clamped tightly around the duck's leg.
A.J. squeezes tight on his band for a secure fit.
A.J. with his final duck.
After A.J. had banded a few ducks, he left to help Mr. Walz return the empty cages to the truck. The cages aren't left on the site because the Refuge changes watersides each day in the area.
A.J. helps Mr. Walz return a crate.
And by that time, the view had changed a bit more on the landscape:
Lastly, the kids helped some of the handlers to roll the nets back up. They have to be re-rolled at the end of each day to prepare them for the next time that particular waterside is used. Since things need to be as quiet as possible for the ducks before sunrise, everything is prepped before leaving the site each time for the next time.
Rolling the nets up all together.
After piling back into the school bus, we headed to the nearest little town of Newburg, North Dakota (note that we were closer to Canada than we were to Minot!) for a rest stop at their only little gas station, as well as some mid-morning snacks. Then it was back on the bus and back to the base for the rest of their school day. We returned just in time for the kids to head to their 4th period class. :-)
And my favorite picture from the day:
A duck flies into the sunlit horizon.
