Megan's Nature Nook
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This past week I had the opportunity to participate in the banding of American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) chicks! Since early this spring we have been monitoring two Kestrel nest boxes at Oxbow Park near Byron, Minnesota. We check the boxes about weekly and record data that we then submit to the American Kestrel Partnership to learn more about Kestrels, their population, and how we can help them. We were very excited when one day we went to check the boxes and there was a female Kestrel sitting on eggs in one of the boxes! We patiently waited and were once again excited when we learned they had hatched! About two weeks after hatching we had a Bird Bander come to age, weigh, sex, and band the chicks. It was a very cool experience that I was lucky enough to be a part of! Two American Kestrel nest boxes were first installed at Oxbow Park the spring of 2018. This is the third year the boxes have been up, and the second year one of the boxes has been used and successfully raised chicks! Click the button below to read an earlier blog post: American Kestrel Nest Boxes, to learn about the nest box monitoring at Oxbow Park and for more information about the American Kestrel Partnership. Before we get into the Kestrel chick banding, here is some general information about bird banding: What is Bird Banding? Bird banding is the process of attaching a small, lightweight, aluminum band to the leg of a bird to identify individual birds by their unique 8 or 9 digit number. It is basically putting an anklet with their own social security number on them to identify each bird. What Does a Bird Band Say? Each band in engraved with a unique 8 or 9 digit number. It also says, WWW.REPORTBAND.GOV What Do You Do if You Find a Band? If you either spot a live bird with a band or find a deceased bird, you can report the 8 or 9 digit number along with the date, time, and location the band was spotted or found to the Bird Banding Lab by going to their website www.reportband.gov. Who Can Band Birds? Bird banding is regulated by the United States Geological Society (USGS) Bird Banding Lab. Only federally licensed bird banders can acquire and band birds. Why is Bird Banding Important? The information gathered from bird banding is used in scientific research, management, and conservation projects. The information can be used to learn more about the following:
Now onto the Kestrel chick banding! Bird Bander, Kirk Payne, sets up the banding site near the nest box. He puts down a tarp, then a towel to lay the chicks on. He also has a scale to weigh each chick and a banding tool kit to keep his bands and banding tools. Clarissa Schrooten, Oxbow Park Naturalist, is recording data. The chicks are removed from the nest box and placed in a bucket lined with saw dust for cushion. Touching the chicks will not harm them or cause the parents to abandon them. Most birds do not have a very good sense of smell. Each chick is then aged and sexed by looking at its feather development and coloring. These chicks were all females between 16-17 days old. The start of brown feathers coming out of the feather shafts lets us know it is a female. You want to band Kestrel chicks between 12-24 days old. In that time frame they are large enough that the band will not slip off yet young enough that they won't try to bail out of the nest and fly because of the activity going on. The chicks are all weighed using a scale. And their keel bone is felt to determine the amount of meat on the breast. You can evaluate if a bird is thin, fat, or in the healthy range by doing this. These three chicks have been well taken care of. Time to band! To the left you can see the tool box with bands of varying sizes for different bird species along with pliers for closing the band around the bird's leg. The band is loose enough that it can move up and down the leg, but snug enough that it won't get caught on things. Closing the band with the pliers. All done! Each bird has their own unique band number. The band also has the website of where to report if you see the band. Check out those talons! Information such as location, banding date, approximate age, band number, sex, and weight were all collected for each kestrel chick. The data that was collected will be entered onto an online database with The Peregrine Fund who runs the American Kestrel Partnership program. This information will help to learn more about Kestrels. Once the banding was complete, the kestrel chicks were returned to their nest box. In not too long they will be old enough to fledge and leave the nest. Thank you to Kirk Payne for helping us monitor our nest boxes and others throughout the county, and for coming out to band our birds!
Let's hope this next box is successful once again next year and in the years to come!
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I’m going to cut to the chase and just say, this book is amazing! Whether you’re an admirer of insects or categorize them as “creepy crawly,” this book is a must read! It will teach you more about insects and their many unique characteristics. It also explains all the different things insects do in our world, why we need them, and how to help them. You will gain a new appreciation for insects and all they do after reading this book. Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson the author of Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects is a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and knows her stuff. She does a great job of explaining insects and what they do in a way that is easy to understand. She covers many topics throughout the book, giving you a taste of the importance of insects without dwelling on a single topic. She also adds in humor and fun references along the way to keep you on your toes. For me this wasn’t a book where you sit down and read cover to cover in a short amount of time. Sverdrup-Thygeson covers a lot in this book so for me it was one of those books where you read a small section then have to digest what was all said before moving onto the next section. As I was reading, I had to keep stopping to tell whoever was around me what cool thing I had just read, so that may be why it took me longer to read, too! Not sure if this book is for you? (Trust me, it is). Do you like chocolate? Insects help pollinate the plant to make chocolate possible. Did you know you can remotely control a cockroach? They have been used to locate and rescue people in building collapses. Did you know some insects can eat plastic? This could help solve some of our plastic pollution problems. These topics are just a handful of the many interesting things Sverdrup-Thygeson covers in Buzz, Sting, Bite! Insects are small but mighty creatures that do some amazing things for us! Without insects our world truly would not be able to function. Insects do many things for us that often get overlooked. Not just out in the wilds of nature, but they are important in the medical world and are needed in order for us to have food. Insects are important in many ways and understanding them better will help you to foster an appreciation for all they do for us. Without them, we would not be able to continue living the way we do. I gave Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects 5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads rating it as “it was amazing.” I’m already wanting to reread it and will need to add it to my personal bookshelf! To learn more about the book, visit GoodReads by clicking the button below. This book was recently republished with the new title of Extraordinary Insects, but has the same great content! Whether you’re an insect lover or not, grab a copy and educate yourself on the importance of insects. You’ll be surprised at what you learn along the way and won’t look at insects the same way!
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