Subject: Contents of N. American Bird Bander
Date: Oct 3 17:46:22 1995
From: Jon Anderson - anderjda at dfw.wa.gov


Tweets,

I just received Vol XX No 2 (April-June 1995) of the North American Bird
Bander, a publication of the Eastern, Inland, and Western Bird Banding
Associations, and thought that folks might be interested in the contents.

Rise and Decline of House Finch Feeder Populations. Robert P Yunick. Pp
49-58. Eastern upstate New York house finch populations appear to have
peaked in mid-80s, then have decined rapidly.

A Simple Method for Removing Leg Bands. Paul Wedeking, Hannah Suthers,
Jean Bickal. Pg 59. Use 2 5-inch haemostats.

Wing Measurement Data of Bank Swallows from Southeastern Wisconsin.
Wallace N MacBriar, Jr. Pp 60-62. His data show Bank Swallows cannot be
sexed by wing measurement.

Hantavirus: Warning to Bird Banders. C. Stuart Houston. Pp 63-64. Dr
Houston points out that banders working around prey remains of raptor
nests, etc can come into contact with deer mice (Peromyscus spp) and
other rodent remains, and thus expose themselves to this deadly virus.
Also, people working around bird nesting boxes often find that deer mice
and other rodents can build their nests in these boxes. He
suggests wetting down the used contents of 'bluebird' boxes before
removing contents during annual maintenance, to keep down the dust
and 'aerosolized virus'. Beware, beware....

News, Notes, Comments:

Color Marking Hints. Frances Hamerstrom. Pg 64. Notes that blue
anodized or celluloid bands are the "worst" color to use. (Color-
blindness problems?)

Several association reports and banding station reports, as well as the
WBBA annual report for 1994 (which is a summary of banding reported from
the WBBA area for 1994 with FWS/CWS bands. 249 banders responded to the
annual survey, reporting 248,016 birds banded (25,878 in Wash/Oreg) from
440 taxa.).

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, WA
anderjda at dfw.wa.gov