My daughter drove me to her volunteer job on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - something that she will be doing for the rest of her life - she is an ornithologist and loves birds. I think birds are pretty too, but the dedication that she has for them goes above and beyond. She picked me up at 5:30 AM. She said that she usually leaves at 4:30 AM but was being considerate of her mom. (Thank you!) It was like another world out there at that hour. It was about an hour's drive, but I found it easy to fall asleep in the car for the most part when her Incubus CDs weren't blasting, but then we settled on some nice Celtic music so I did get some sleep.
I met Laura Obiso who was catching up on some work at the observatory before going home to get her new Delaware Water Gap book off to the publishers. She was delighted that my daughter was there to band birds today and said I would be in for a treat.
What Ms. Obiso doesn't know about me is that -- I am not a Nature Princess. My idea of roughing it is the Holiday Inn, but my daughter jumped into Laura's jeep (in case we ran into bears!) because we had to open the nets. It was a long process to unwind the nets and make sure all of the water came out of them so that they would be invisible to the bird population, but soon they were all ready to go.
Before we even made it back to the observatory, she saw several birds caught in the nets and had to carefully remove them and put them into cotton bags. (They need these cotton bags to transport the birds to the observatory after capture so I will sew up a bunch for them with tons of different material I have in my attic). I had the honor of holding the birds so that they would not be unduly traumatized by the bumpy jeep ride through the woods (unlike me which was traumatized! I could only imagine a safari!!). When we made our way back to the observatory, my daughter measured their wings, found out their fat content, labeled them male/female or unknown, their species, their age and then we recorded the banding ring number that would go on their leg. She was so gentle with these tiny animals that I was so proud of her. She banded them and then released them back into the wild.
We did this many times. One had to revisit the nets every half an hour. When I asked why, Cailin said because they should not be unduly traumatized for a longer period and of course there were predators in the woods. There was a cat lurking around, but no bears I am happy to say. Everyone made it safely to the observatory to be counted (Cailin recorded 43 birds) measured, etc., and then released without incident. Apparently, you can only do this until around 9:30 AM because the sun gets too hot from that time on. Keeping the birds in the nets under those conditions can be dangerous for the birds, so it's just not done.
This is an all volunteer staff of only two regulars now, but they need so many more volunteers. One does not have to be a bird expert, but there are so many other jobs that those with a little extra time can do for this wonderful cause. Of course, they also need contributions for equipment to keep the birds safe and to replace the old nets when they are no longer safe for the birds.
If you can help either by a donation or your time, won't you contact Laura Obiso below and see what you can do for our little flying friends? Thanks so much.
Raccoon Ridge Bird Observatory
Laura Obiso, Director and Master Bander
P O Box 153
Layton, NJ 07851
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