Puget Sound Bird Observatory

An amazing day with our Level 2 Bird Banding Seminar! We zoomed in on better understanding the molt calendar, the anatomy of the bird in hand, more precise skulling and fat scoring, advanced net setting, and identifying birds by smell (well, not really, but...).

Spring has arrived, and we went out to do some research. Banding at Morse today was geat, we had an amazing team! We were beta testing our new banding app, created by our software engineer Nathanael Swecker, and this new tool is already accelerating the pace of our research.

We had a few surprises in our nets today, with the best being a Lincoln's Sparrow, a rarity at our station. We also banded a Fox Sparrow, and a breeding pair of Hutton's Vireos.

I'm so excited about our new and growing team! Many of our students from our autumn banding course are returning, and building experience and skill. Such a good day out, with important research continuing.

Thank you for your interest in the 2023 Beginning Bird Banding Course! The course is now full!

Stay tuned for a second level ba**er course that is currently planned for springtime, just as pre-alternate molts are being seen. We will pick up where our beginner banding course left off, and will dig deeper into molt, extraction strategies, and more practice with banding live birds.

Keep an eye on the PSBO website for open registration for the level two banding course:

https://www.pugetsoundbirds.org/

Just two spots left for the upcoming PSBO South Sound Bird Banding Course! Only a few days left to live the dream and become a bird ba**er! Check out the details for the course at the PSBO website: https://www.pugetsoundbirds.org/

There are a few spots left for the PSBO bird banding course coming up in late September! Have you ever wanted to hold birds in your hand? Do you have a burning passion to research, gather data, and answer those elusive questions that only field research can answer? Sign up for this class, starting in September at Northwest Trek and the Morse Wildlife Reserve in Graham. Visit the PSBO website to learn more and to sign up for this in-depth course!

PSBO is offering a bird banding course for new and beginning ba**ers in September/October 2023! In partnership with Northwest Trek, the course will run on September 29, 30 and October 1, 7, and 8. Visit our website to read more and to sign up. Spots are filling up quickly, so shake your rectrices and visit pugetsoundbirds.org

The 2022 PSBO Beginner Banding Course is filling up fast, but there are a few spots left! Sign up to learn how to catch and band birds for ornithological study with our team of qualified instructors! Add this important skill to your resume, expand your horizon, and up your game as a natural scientist. Get more information and sign up now at the PSBO website: pugetsoundbirds.org !

MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) season is well under way. While in most parts of the country, MAPS is strongly associated with summer, the Juneuary weather of the Pacific Northwest is very much with us this year. So far it seems to be good for the birds, our capture numbers are up, and we're already logging a good number of fledgelings. Still, climate change is having a massive impact on productivity and survivorship, which is why the research our MAPS station is doing is so critical.

We are pleased to announce that the 2022 Bird Banding Course is on! If you are interested in learning how to band birds, or want to increase your skills as a ba**er, come join our experienced staff for another exciting banding course. The information and sign-up page is available on the PSBO website now! We hope to see you this year!

Summer has arrived, as I'm sure you have noticed! On May 10th we caught our first Swainson's Thrush of the year! But even more exciting, it arrived with a band already on it! We first banded this bird at the station in 2018 and aged it as a DCB/ASY bird (Definitive Cycle Basic/After Second Year) back then. This would make our first SWTH of the summer a bird that is at least 6 years old! Welcome home, little bird, may your season be filled with the cheeping of many fledgelings!

The change of season was so evident today out at our banding station at the Morse Preserve.

We finished our US Geological Survey study of avian productivity and survivorship (MAPS) three weeks ago. Then I co-taught the PSBO banding course with my good friend and PSBO President Chris Southwick. Then, I get the team back together for the autumn sessions. This is how I've rounded out the last three summers.

These sessions are the most exciting banding days of the year, because the potential for catching strange and unusual stuff goes through the roof! Birds are on the move, and as birders you're likely aware of the late migration oddities.

Today, we caught a bird we almost never catch at our station. It's not a rare bird, or at all unusual in our location, but we rarely catch them. In the three years of my study, we've only caught two.

Today, though, we caught two more Lincoln's Sparrows, looking glorious in the morning sun. Being in the genus Melospiza, it's not surprising that they look very similar to one of the birds in our study, the illustrious and ever present Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia. But this species is much smaller, has less gray in the plumage, and is very much it's own unique thing.

Love you, Lincoln's Sparrows.