On Tue, 27 Feb 1996, M. Smith wrote:

> OK tweets, it's been a few days now since the Great Gray was
> radio-tagged. Those of you who threw up such a commotion about the
> suggestion of catching and banding the CC Longspur, why aren't you
> yelling and screaming about this act?

I have to agree with Mike, I don't see what the problem is either.

With the Longspur, we had a great converstation going about the age and
sex of the bird. By banding the bird and determining the age and sex of
it in the hand, we could test feild marks and feild observation techniques
that did and did not work.

I will add that the bird was banded. It turned out to be an adult male in
good health (judging from amount of body fat). I did not band bird, and
judging from the public's attitude towards the whole thing, I will
not disclose who did.

When I went to see the Great Gray Owl, I also tried to age and sex the
bird. I concluded that I could not determine the sex from what I could
observe. Perhaps if I had more experiance with this species I could have.
I was pretty sure that it was an adult based on the shape and wear of the
tail feathers. When I found out that it was banded, I inquired as to the
age and sex, as it turns out it was an adult (I think it was determined
to be a male also, but I can't remember).

I don't do this with just the rare things. When I get board here at home
and need to step away from the computer, I often sit by the window and
sort out the juncos and other sparrows as far down the key as possible.

In short, I support efforts to band birds. It would be nice if all people
interested in birds could spend at least one day of their life at a
banding station. You would be surprized at how much you can learn from a
bird having it in your hands for just a few momemts.

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Russell Rogers
4510 Glenn Way SW
Seattle, WA 98116
(206) 935-6280
rrogers at halcyon.com
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