Stuart and other banders:

I'm probably going to get deluged for this, but for my education, what
exactly is the purpose of going out and banding a bunch of random birds?
Especially common birds? I see discussions that make me think people are
just going out and banding whatever they see. For any scientific data to be
useful, shouldn't there be some sort of plan for what you're trying to find
out and how you're going to achieve that? Is there someone collecting these
birds at the other end? Are there specific goals? It seems like if you're
going to band birds, the things you're trying to find out would be different
for each species, so why wouldn't you focus on finding and banding a given
species or family of birds? Is there some grand organization that centrally
collects and collates all this information? And how does it get used? I'm
not even sure I know what information goes on a band and what you're trying
to find out by doing this, other than migration patterns.

I guess I just have a feeling that to do ANYTHING artificial to a wild bird
or animal, you should have a darn good reason, and be fully prepared to
follow through and make good use of the data (with a study plan, hypotheses
you're testing, publishing results, etc). I've always wondered about
researchers who attach things to animals. How do we know this does not make
them more visible to predators or somehow change the way these animals are
treated by other members of their own species? This is NOT meant as a
flame on banders - I'm really just asking questions here, I am not
anti-research (see last posting). For all I know, these folks *have*
detailed plans and organizations that will effectively use the data. But
Stuart, in response to the question that was posted, you stated that you
thought it was a good thing as long as done carefully, but you never did say
WHY it was a good thing or what useful information would be gained from
banding ducks. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

Teresa Michelsen
temi461 at ecy.wa.gov