Each
year Rocky Point Bird Observatory offers its Introductory Bird Monitoring and
Banding Workshop in Victoria, BC. It runs for three days and is typically held
on the Easter long weekend. This workshop focuses on bird identification,
monitoring procedures and banding techniques, as well as sexing and ageing of
birds.
This
is an excellent opportunity for undergraduates, graduate students, bird
observatory volunteers and naturalists to explore the aspects of operating an
avian monitoring project, including bird safety, mist-netting, data collection,
bird banding, identification, sexing and ageing. Participants should not expect
to leave this introductory workshop as qualified banders. Much of the work is
with frozen and dried bird specimens although there are opportunities to work
with live birds to learn safe handling and techniques for banding and
extraction. Skills practiced in this workshop will be beneficial for a variety
of projects including productivity, survivorship and migration monitoring field
work.
This
year the workshop was held at Royal Roads University on March 25th
through March 27th. Nick Bartok was our primary instructor. He is a
wildlife biologist from Calgary who is affiliated with the Calgary Bird Banding
Society. The workshop was organized by Wallis Moore Reid and Acacia
Spencer-Hills. Eighteen people participated – three from Calgary AB, one from
Slave Lake AB, one from Salt Spring Island BC, one from Courtenay BC, two from
Washington State (US), two Australians (living and working in Vernon) and eight
from the Victoria BC area. Along with Nick, Wallis, and Acacia, seventeen RPBO
volunteers came out to help with this workshop. It really is a group effort and
thanks go to everyone who helped organize this and participated as a volunteer.
A lot of work goes into putting this on! Special thanks to Nick Bartok, our
main instructor, and to Royal Roads University for providing such an excellent
venue for this workshop.
If you would like to see more photos from the workshop, please go to our Flickr page:
