Serge wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong Stuart, but in this particular case,
> this might be even a better move to band these birds in Spain
> and France and have the Brits and Scots check them out...

Yes, it would - as long as the birds that were caught were proved
to be breeding. I think that lots of birds would be breeding in
Iberia while migrants heading north were still passing through the
area.

> Then again, I guess the lack of banders (and money for
> bands...) is a similarly big problem in France and even more
> so in Spain.

UK banders pay (almost) the full market price for banding birds.
There is a subsidy from the Joint Nature Conservancy Commision
though that shrinks on e regular basis. For example to band a coal
tit (Parus ater) costs about $0.15 and a cormorant (Phalacrocorax
carbo) costs about $1.20 !!!!!!!

There's no reason why banders could pay for bands as a way to
reducing the costs of some programs. I was pleased to see that bands
are free in the US (I like free bands) however this comes at the
price of major restrictions on who can band and what they can band
and why - all sound scientifically, however this makes it difficult
to sustain a "population" of banded birds for most species as
projects start and stop so a lot of long term migration and
population dynamics questions (recovery rate being indicitive of
mortality) remain unanswered and will continue to do so.

Stuart
---
Stuart MacKay
220-301 Calibre Chase Drive
Raleigh, NC 27609
ph:(919) 832 0353
email: stuart at blarg.net