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Winter/Spring 2008 - Vol. 23, No. 1
Greetings from southern Ohio!
Our official hawk field season begins in mid-February and I am eager to be out doing fieldwork again. This winter, some banders down here have reported and banded some great irruptive species from the north, such as pine siskins and red-breasted nuthatches. (Unfortunately, most of them passed up my feeder and banding station).
OBBA has two terrific events scheduled for this spring and I hope to see you at both of them. On Saturday, March 29, OBBA is hosting the second annual winter banding event at Caesar Creek State Park in Waynesville, Ohio. Last year, 5 or 6 OBBA banders caught 110 birds of 17 species at the established feeders outside the visitors’ center. We hosted more than 150 visitors at the banding station, many of whom had never seen a bird close-up before. Their enthusiasm was contagious and we banders had a fabulous day banding. It’s always fun to watch beginners get excited over birds and I loved that we could bring the birds to them in such a unique way. This year, Caesar Creek personnel are planning even more advertising than last, so we may expect bigger crowds. We hope you can all join us.
The OBBA spring meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 5, in Chillicothe and it promises to be a good one. The North American Banding Council (NABC) certification written test will be offered again at this meeting. It has been a few years since we’ve offered the test, and I encourage you to plan to take it if you haven’t already and to advise your subpermittees to take it if they haven’t. NABC certification will improve your application for a master banding permit, and (if nothing else) signing up to take the test will inspire you to re-read those easy-to-forget details of the Bird Banding Manual and Pyle. But seriously, taking the test does give you a great opportunity to review some important banding facts and skills. I am happy that I was encouraged to take it a few years back. And Ohio Bird Banding Association has been blessed with some of the top NABC trainers in the U.S. We’re lucky to be able to train and work with them, and grateful that they are once again offering their time to help us improve our banding skills through NABC.
In addition to the NABC testing, the OBBA spring meeting will have banding, and reports from some of our own members on banding research they’re doing in Ohio. If you are interested in reporting on your banding studies or in taking the NABC written exam, please contact Kelly Williams-Sieg at once.
I look forward to seeing you all again in a few short weeks! Cheryl
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