Saturday, January 29, 2011

On the first day of Christmas...

a good friend gave to me - one frozen warbler.  This poor little thing was found by a friend, frozen stiff on her back porch steps in mid-December.  I think it's a female yellow-rumped warbler.  This bird is primarily an insect eater during the summer but will take berries and seeds in the winter so it doesn't necessarily leave the area.  I'm not sure what happened to this bird.  Maybe it couldn't find enough food.


The special thing is it's wearing a leg band.  Right now it's in my freezer, next to the package of blood worms and the frozen corn nibblets.  When the weather clears up, I may bring it to Joppa Flats, the Audubon sanctuary in Newburyport where bird banding is done every Spring.  They'll be able to read the information on the band that tells when and where this bird was banded and approximately how old it was when caught. I may try reading the band and reporting the information myself.

What should you do if you ever find a banded bird?  Here's a link to the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center that explains how to identify the different types of bands and how to report finding a banded bird. http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/homepage/btypes.htm