SC National Guard promotes bird banding at McCrady Training Center

Photo By 2nd Lt. Jorge Intriago | Rex Glover, Wildlife Technician for South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR), uses a magnifying glass to inspect a bird at McCrady Training Center, S.C., Sept. 29, 2012. Glover captures land birds to gather information about the birds such as body fat, wingspan, weight, age and sex. The birds are banded and released with a tracking number to learn about behavioral patterns like their migration and where they spend their winter.  

EASTOVER, SC, UNITED STATES

10.02.2012

Story by Capt. Jamie Delk 

South Carolina National Guard

MCCRADY TRAINING CENTER, S.C. – Recycling, saving water, saving energy and using less gas are all ways people can protect our environment. Protecting our natural resources and wild animals are also ways to be environmentally responsible. The South Carolina National Guard plays a crucial role in doing just that.

Members of the S.C. Army National Guard’s Environmental Department and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources are working together in the practice of bird banding. Bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds by attaching an individually numbered tag to a bird’s leg. Different aspects of the bird's life can then be studied by the ability to track the same bird later.

“Birds with bands can be traced back to the day and hour they were banded,” said Lex Glover, a Wildlife Technician with the DNR.

Glover, along with the rest of the team, bird band in two fields at McCrady Training Center. From the months of May through October, the team places 25 nets, checking them every half hour starting before sunrise until about noon.

“The nets are scattered around an old food plot field, tucked away in the vegetation,” said Glover. “By doing this we are helping the McCrady Training Center Natural Resources program to know what kinds of birds are here.”

Along with knowing what types of birds are located at McCrady Training Center, bird banding helps scientists learn about their migration habits, how and where the birds spend their winter, population studies and feeding behavior, to name a few.

After a bird is caught, they are brought back to a specified location to collect the data. Among other things, the wing span, weight, age, sex, body fat and overall look of the bird are recorded. If the bird does not have a band, they are also banded and this number is saved for records.

“Within minutes, we get the birds back into the wild. Everything we do is about the safety of the birds,” said Glover.

These records from McCrady, and every bird bander across the Unites States, are sent to the national Bird Banding Laboratory in Maryland. This national compository contributes to the understanding of history and the dynamics of various species.

According to the National Bird Banding Laboratory website, “An understanding of these dynamics, in turn, is critical to evaluations of management actions, including the establishment of appropriate exploitation rates for hunting; assessments for actions to improve the status of a species, especially threatened and endangered species; or assessments of the effects of changes of habitats on all bird species.”

For more information on bird banding, please visit http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov.

• Date Taken: 10.02.2012
• Date Posted: 10.02.2012 17:11
• Story ID: 95615
• Location: EASTOVER, SC, US