Bird Banding at Carpenter Nature Center

I am still a bit behind on my posting. With work, my normal life and running around taking pictures I do not get a lot of time to post except on the weekends. On Friday June 21 I was able to get off work early. Normally that would be a good thing, getting an early start on the weekend. However the only reason that I got to leave early was because I had to go in and work during the weekend. But it was not all bad. I had read in my St Paul Audubon Association newsletter that they were doing bird banding at Carpenter Nature Center on Friday mornings and this gave me a chance to go check it out. When I arrived at the nature center they were just setting up the nets. This was the first time that I had witnessed banding so I was not entirely sure what to expect. So I started talking to the guys as they were setting up the nets and even helped out a little. We caught a few birds in the nets but they had all been caught and banded in the past.

So there were no birds that were banded while I was there. I did get a few pictures of the birds while the guys worked and it was interesting seeing the information that they recorded for each of the captured birds.

The highlight of the morning though were the kids that were there for summer camp or some such activity. The leaders were taking them around the grounds talking to them about birds and bird calls. They would check the nets and come running over very excitedly when a bird had been caught. Then they would watch the bander remove the bird from the net as they talked about the type of bird. It was fun to watch their faces.

I remember as a kid I was very much into nature and wildlife. I was always getting in trouble for going off to the woods or the pond. I am sure that has a lot to do with the man that I am today. Hopefully the experience that these kids had that Friday will help to shape them to appreciate birds and wildlife as they grow and become the future of our planet.