Aug. 10, 2007 - Show and Tell Friday
Welcome to Show and Tell Friday hosted by Canadagirl. Visit her blog to link to other show and tell entries for today.
Here are some photos from last summer that i thought might be of interest. I post them today in celebration of the return of the hummers to my window feeder. I haven't seen a hummer at my feeder since May, but last week we had one show up and much celebration ensued.
Last summer we had an opportunity to go and see hummingbirds captured and banded, then released back to the wild. They were checked carefully and their weight documented, etc. It was a really cool experience and we were all fascinated by it and enjoyed talking to the couple documenting the birds.
Joe even had the privelege of holding one to realease it. They sit there kinda stunned for a minute, then all of a sudden they take off!!!!!!!
Apparently i should do more "Telling" on this post! Thanks for the interest.
Let's see.........
Our local state park has a wonderful line-up of events all summer long. We get their calendar each year so we know what kind of cool activities they have planned. They did the hummingbird band and release again this year, but it was during the family reunion and we were in another state. boo hoo, we'd have loved to go again. There are only a handful of folks across the country that are licensed to band the hummers and the couple that does it here is in their late 80s. They are fabulous folks. I think one of their sons is also licensed, but i'm not sure.
OK...........How do they catch them?................
They have hummingbird feeders set up at the visitor center on a regular basis. I often see the little fellas when we go to visit there. A few days before they plan to band them, they put large wire cages around the feeders. I suppose this is so the birds become accustomed to the cages and aren't frightened.
To capture the birds they wait until a bird flies into the cage to feed. Once it has settled a bit, they pull a string that shuts the door of the cage. Someone sits there the whole time to do this at two feeders, close together. Then the old man comes and catches the bird inside the cage........i honestly don't remember how he did it per se, but he was very good at it. Once caught, the little birds kinda go into a sleep mode almost while they are being handled. I remember that they weighed them using a little sack hanging from a scale of sorts, they measured their beaks, determined the gender and age and dusted the pollen off their heads to see what they'd been eating. Then out to the back porch to be released. They lay still in the open palm for about a minute before they suddenly just take off. The folks don't do anything to stun them, i think maybe they go into a shock of sorts at being caught or maybe it's a defense mechanism for them to "shut down" when trapped. not sure.
Tonight i saw two hummers fighting over our feeder. I am just thrilled. We enjoy watching them so much. All four of my kids will just stand there amazed when we see one out there and nobody breathes.
Last year the hummers got used to seeing our kids out there and would fly right up to them sometimes.
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