As a person who participates in banding; the information gained by banding
could be greatly beneficial. When a bird is banded; sex, age, amount of fat [as
a general indication of health], weight, feather condition and any visual or
distinctive characteristics are recorded (and made available to people
researching the species). By banding this bird, when it is sighted again, there
would be accessible history of where it has been. For example, if a snowy owl
comes back next year, is it the same bird?(See Bud Anderson's tweeter email)

Banding is done to help determine habitat requirements, and to better
understand the needs of the birds banded. Rarely is a bird ever hurt. And the
snowy probably would not be chased away if there is ample hunting available at
Discovery. If there isn't ample food, then the bird will move on anyway.

The next question about banding this snowy, is who is doing the banding? Are
they using wing-tags--which people can easily read? Anyone banding raptors has
to have a special banding permit, and have the welfare of every bird as the
priority over obtaining information. Plus, watching the capture and banding of this large raptor,
from a binocular distance, would be quite interesting and educational.


Christine Southwick
Shoreline, WA


On Mon, 5 Dec 2005, Levine, Barron S wrote:

> Tweeters,
> A question for the group if time permits. If this is not an appropriate
> venue for such an issue, would someone be kind enough to let me know.
> Sunday at Discovery park Kate and I brought some non-birding friends and
> their 2 daughters (aged 5 and 3) to look at the Snowy Owl that has been
> present for the last week or so. Our group and all that passed by were
> thrilled at the sight of such a wonderful bird. On our way out of the park,
> there was a group of people ( a park ranger among them) who were "bandying"
> about the idea of trapping the bird and banding it. The ranger asked what
> the other people who were watching the bird thought about this idea. All
> said they were against it, with various salient comments being made about
> the reasoning for doing this. The park ranger decided against banding the
> bird based on what the group had to say. Definitely was nicely done on her
> part.
> The ethics questions is, when is it appropriate to band a bird like this
> owl? This is not necessarily a broad question about the ethics of banding
> birds in the first place. That might open up a whole can of worms that I'm
> not asking us to tackle. Given that for so many people (my friends included)
> this is a great opportunity to introduce people to the wonders of birding,
> would banding this bird have enough benefit to offset the possible negative
> repercussions?
> Again hope this is within the boundaries of this group. Thanks
>
> Barry Levine
> Seattle
> levineb at bsd405.org
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