2016 RPBO Introductory Bird Monitoring and Banding Workshop

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 25^th through March 27^th. 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:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/rpbo/pool/