Bird Banding

This past Saturday I finally made it down to Iona Island to do some bird banding with a local naturalist club. Bird banding, for those who don't know, is a practice whereby a small aluminum band is placed around a bird's leg. The birds are caught in mist nets, carefully removed and brought back to the banding station. From here, they are banded, weighed, sexed, aged and have their wings measured.

Banding serves many purposes - it can help show where birds are migrating to, can help researchers learn about the life span of birds, how habitats are providing them with food (through their weights) and can also help to do a basic census of what's in the area.

The morning was really foggy, and most of the nets were frozen shut for the first bit, which meant lots of opportunity to take photos!

Early morning fog...

A cute little black-capped chickadee! I tried to get him to face the camera but he kept his little eyes on me the whole time... 

Sun rise (if you can believe it!)

Still, silent morning. Beautiful though.