Contact Us: auburnbirdbander@aol.com Our Records Our Photos Team Members Brochure Articles and Publications Photos of the Week Photo of the Week Archive Saw-whet Owl Project Our Research ASC Bluebird Project Keith's e-mails! Other Birding Links Bird Quizzes, Games and Random Info 2008 Hooters Calendars What is the average air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
More New Photos of the Week by Mary Sharkey
Updated August 1st, 2008 Another New Weird Bird Fact
Auburn Bird Banding
The story behind the Auburn Bird Banding Research Station
Under the tutelage of dedicated teachers, Mark and Helen Blazis, the students of Auburn, Massachusetts have been given a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with many species of migrating song birds. Mr. Blazis, a recently retired Science Teacher at the Auburn Middle School, is a former National Science Teacher of the Year. Students from the Auburn schools assist Mr. and Mrs. Blazis, and several other volunteers, who have included Dr. Richard Weagle, Keith, Kim, and Garrett MacAdams, Dr. Larry, Marcy and Sarah Reich, Gary and Jill Hetel, Jim, Pauline, Brian and David Sheridan, the late Tom Donaldson, Stephanie Donaldson, Lois Kolofsky, Stephen and Audrey Vincent, Mattie VandenBoom, the Sharkey sisters, Joan and Mary, Justin and Ken Dion, and Joe Bourget in banding over 2,000 birds a year. The children are taught to respect, identify, and process birds. The processing of these birds include weighing, measuring the wing chord, and placing a sequentially numbered metal band around the captive bird's leg. The bands are supplied by the United States Geological Survey to Master Banders across North America. Mr. Blazis, one of only approximately 500 Master Banders in the United States, Outdoorsman and Naturalist, frequently refers to the captive neo-tropical birds as "jungle jewels." Truly this is no exaggeration. The many different species of birds including warblers, wrens, towhees, flycatchers, sparrows, and kinglets, shine in the morning sun, much to the delight of all the volunteers. Occasionally a rare find, such as the Lawrence's Warbler, sends everyone scrambling for their cameras. The banding station consists of picnic tables set up on the porch of the Sportsman's Club and mist nets set up on the grounds of the Auburn Sportsman's Club. The Club graciously and generously allows these volunteers to use their facilities and grounds in support of the team's research. This banding station is unique in this country, being on the Sportsman's Club land, it is a free, open-classroom for the students of the entire community, as well as for environmentalists. This is what sets the Auburn Bird Banding Program apart from every other program: sportsmen and environmentalists, working together for the benefit of kids, schools, town, wildlife, and ultimately the preservation of open space.
Mark and Helen Blazis admire a rare Lawrence's Warbler
"Why do all the birds we catch think they can beat me in a staring contest?" asks photographer/birdbander Mary Sharkey.
Click to enlarge, then use the back button to return to this page.
If you have any drawings or photos you would like to be considered for the Photo of the Week, please give them to Myrt or e-mail them to her at cmorin@allegromicro.com or submit them to auburnbirdbander@aol.com
Mary Sharkey's Website, Click Here
Tom Donaldson Memorial Page Under Construction (including photo's by Tom and and Steph) Click Here.
Gary Hetel's Photos, including the handsome guy himself, Click Here.
Mattie VandenBoom and Jorden Straub's photo's, Click Here.
Joe's (Carlos) photos, Click Here.
Steve Vincent has some very cool photos. Click HERE to view these photos.
John Paul Livingstone's Photos, Click HERE.
Raptor Informational Session, Click HERE.
by Mattie VandenBoom
Click to enlarge, press back to return.
Wood Ducks are not really made out of wood!!! They are made out of feathers, bones, and tissues (the gross kind, not the Kleenex kind), just like other ducks.
Our Records by Keith MacAdams and Dr. Reich
All Records on Bandit as of 5-28-08
Record Archives
Exciting info concerning our tick research from Mr. Blazis:
We're back to heavy-duty research, now that we have re-established ties with scientists who have the capability of sophisticated analysis of Lyme disease-causing bacteria, which we can provide through our captures. For newcomers, I first thought there might be a connection between migrating birds and the rapid spread of Lyme disease way back in the early '90's when I was banding alone. I began by sending my specimens to Dr. Peter Rand at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, which back then was one of the only tick-bird research centers in the world. Their focus was on disease-causing agents affecting people in Maine, so, although they worked with me, I knew it would be best to involve scientists in Massachusetts to work with me on the project. I contacted Dr. Richard Pollack and his research team at Harvard University's School of Public Health, and we began a collaboration that lasted for several years, with me providing tick specimens both from birds and from native wild mice. Harvard School of Public Health has a world-wide focus, and my specimens sometimes were not as important as an outbreak of Ebola in Africa, for example. I chose to contact the most local scientists, for whom the relevance of my research would be even more important. Consequently, for several years, now with Auburn assistants, I provided specimens to Dr. Steven Rich of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. The collaboration was a natural, until Dr. Rich left for other research opportunities. We continued, during this hiatus, analyzing which species of birds carry the ticks, and in what proportions. With new partners fully capable of sophisticated genetic analysis of the pathogenic bacteria, Dr. Maria Duik-Wasser and Dr. Anne Gatewood, Yale University, we are once again resuming our original and primary focus.
Lyme Disease Studies
BIRDBANDING MEDICAL RESEARCH RESUMES IN AUBURN (written September 7, 2007)
by Mark M. Blazis, Research Director
This weekend and each weekend before the hunting season starts and mid-October, the Auburn Sportsman's Club, on Elm St. in Auburn, is the focus of an intense, pioneering birdbanding study of potentially national significance, capturing neotropical migrants as they fly back to their jungle, winter homes in the tropics of the Caribbean, Central, and South America. The Auburn Birdbanding Research Station collaborates with Dr. M.A. Diuk Wasser from the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Together, we are concerned both with bird populations and the spread of Lyme disease. Our focus is the spread of ticks, especially different strains of one particular species, Ixodes scapularis, that will attach to and parasitize brush, shrub, and grass-inhabiting birds. Very little is known about the genetic make-up of the different strains of bacteria (Borrelia bergdorferi) in these ticks. Our research team carefully extracts the immature ticks, usually from the birds' skin around their eyes and the corners of their mouths, preserving them in alcohol to later be microscopically and genetically studied at the Yale Medical School labs. Not all species of ticks are dangerous. The species which is dangerous in our region has a very distinct, cork-screw, sperm-like tail. Certain strains of this particular bacteria may prove more frequent in birds than those in mice, for example. Some strains may prove to be more dangerous/pathogenic to humans, and if so, this study could prove very relevant to public health up and down the East Coast. Students and members of the community are welcome to visit the research station beginning at 7:30 each weekend morning, when opportunities to observe, photograph, hold, and release processed birds is possible, under the supervision of federally-permitted staff. Staff has taken promising students and adults, teaching them research protocols and involving them in the actual research project. The opportunity is a valuable one for anyone in the community looking to become involved in serious scientific/medical research and the study of migratory birds.
Captured Birds with Ticks: Listings and Percentages
West Nile Virus Research: In conjunction with the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine
Audubon: Birding Basics
Backyard Bird Count: www.birdsource.org
Bird Banding Chatter on the Net
eNature (Natural Wildlife Federation)
The Institute of Bird Populations This is Pyle's site.
The Massachusetts Birding List
MassWildlife (Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife)
SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive)
Article on Alaska, on the lookout for Avian Flu, submitted by Dr. Reich
Worcester Sunday Telegram and Gazette: A Merry Band
Audubon: State of Birds USA 2004
Extinction may claim Hawaiian bird
Reuters: Lights-Out Policies in Cities Save Migrating Birds
Reuters: As Ice Thaws, Arctic Peoples at Loss for Words
Worcester Telegram and Gazette Article on the Sturbridge Christmas Bird Count.
Worcester Telegram and Gazette Arcticle: Vets Find Lyme Risk is Great in Dogs
Telegram & Gazette, Jill, Sarah, and Dan, Sub-Permitees!
Sunday, June 18th, 2006 Article starring Mark and Helen! Click here to read
June 2005 issue of All Bird Alert
New York Times: The Amazon at Risk
New York Times: Ivory Billed Woodpecker Found in eastern Arkansas!
From the National Biological Information Infrastructure’s Spring 2005 newsletter: It’s Easier Than Ever to Follow the Birds
Check out this link to NPR that Dr. Reich submitted. There are several articles on the Galapagos Islands being under threat.
Click here: NPR : Galapagos, Under Threat
Dr. Reich sent in some really great articles. Click HERE to read about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and hear a recording and click HERE to read about Global Warming and the path to extinction.
Check out the newest edition of the Audubon Newswire:
CLICK HERE
Read the UNU Report on Global Warming
Click
HERE
Study: Hummingbirds refuel in
mid-flight
Click here
Quizzes, Games, & Random Info
Mattie's Quiz (If you don't find this challenging enough, try identifying the hand holding the bird!)
Check out this quiz that Mattie found: http://www.a2z4birders.com/4/matcher/index.html
We've all heard "gaggle of geese" or "murder of crows" but have you ever heard of a "charm of goldfinches?" Common Bird Group Names
How far can you hit a penguin? (click on Bob for the penguin to drop and click on Bob again to swing the club) New Record on Penguin Hitting: Jim Judicki from Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. broke the old record by .5! The new record is 323.5
How far can you hit a penguin on steroids? (a new twist to the old game)
Are you a good matchmaker? Try this game: Noah's Ark
The answer to the 30 year old question "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" is: Flight speeds of birds are difficult to measure and verify, Estimates for maximum speed of swallows is probably 40 to 50 mph. (Terres. Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds)
