Hi everyone! I've been mostly been working in the office the past month or so (we've gotten so busy!), but I realized that there was one last set of photos I forgot to post - and it's from my favorite field day this summer :)

On this day, we went out to put radio transmitter "backpacks" on American Oystercatchers, for a grad student who is studying the movement of birds in the area. They have proposed putting a windmill up, and they need to see if it will affect the birds.

We don't have many of these birds here, and the day we went out were poor AMOY-tagging conditions, but we still managed to tag one bird which was really exciting.

Setting up the woosh net. 

The net is ready and waiting! 

The AMOY decoy!

Watched these guys for probably a good half an hour, waiting for them to get into position...! Only one cooperated.

It was very difficult to catch the actual catching of the bird on net, because it went from waiting silently for the bird to get into the right spot, then suddenly the trigger was pulled and it was all over! What happened essentially is that there was a bungee cord strung along the length of the net, and then back to our hiding place in the beach grass. When the bird was in the right spot, the trigger person would pull the cord, releasing the net, which would go up and over the bird, trapping it.

Extracting the Oystercatcher from the net

Hello, bird!

Absolutely gorgeous bird :)

Banding the bird for identification

This lady became 8K

Bands on both legs, to make sure whoever may spot her can read the band!

Attaching the "backpack"

Making sure it is nice and snug

Processed and ready to go!

Here is what the transmitter looks like!

We spent all day and only got the one, but it was still lots of fun!