At the Conner Museum, we now double bag incoming specimens in Ziplock
freezer bags (if they'll fit, of course). The animal is in the inner bag and
the label is between the inner and outer bag, which keeps blood off the
label. We get a fresh weight on incoming specimens. The double-bagged
specimens are stored in ice chests in the walk-in freezer. We've had a
major problem with dehydration in our walk-in freezer, but the combination
of double-bagging and ice chests seems to work well to prevent dehydration.
I've reweighed specimens stored in the freezer for over a year and half and
the weight is the same as the fresh weight. The ice chests are just a
variety of cheap Styrofoam containers.



So, if you only pick up the occasional bird and plan to get it to a museum
within a few days or weeks, double-bag it and freeze it. If you regularly
pick up specimens and keep them for a while before getting them to a museum,
double-bagging each one and putting them in an ice chest in the freezer will
help keep them from dehydrating. You can fit a lot of small birds in one of
those cheap, six-packed sized Styrofoam containers.



Kelly Cassidy

(Conner Museum curator)





From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Doug
Schurman
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:11 PM
To: 'Marc Hoffman'; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] dead birds



I have been told that is an outdated method based on old freezers. Modern
freezers apparently don't have this problem and the Burke museum says they
prefer people don't do this due to the extra mass.



Doug Schurman

NE Seattle



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Marc
Hoffman
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:02 PM
To: Peter H Wimberger; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] dead birds



Additionally, I have been advised to put the bagged bird into a second,
larger ziploc bag filled with water, and freeze the whole thing. The bird
stays dry in the inner bag, while the outer bag protects it against freezer
burn that is a result of the thawing and refreezing cycle of self-defrosting
freezers.

Marc Hoffman
www.SongbirdPhoto.com <http://www.songbirdphoto.com/>



At 05:24 PM 1/25/2012, Peter H Wimberger wrote:

Hi Tweets,
The Slater Museum on the University of Puget Sound campus in Tacoma is happy
to take dead birds. Common birds are often being used in education kits for
K-12 classes and others are put into the collection. I will put out a
special request here for Anna's Hummingbirds, as we have are currently doing
research on rapid evolution in Anna's. And as other Tweets mentioned, the
Burke Museum at the UW takes specimens as do some of the local Audubon
chapters. When you find a dead bird, put it into a ziploc plastic bag along
with a piece of paper with the date and locality and put it into your
freezer until you can take it to your local museum.
Thanks very much,
Peter Wimberger
Slater Museum
Tacoma, WA