Master Naturalists: Banding doves provides helpful information
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Dove banding starts early. It's 6:10 a.m., and will be light soon. We're 20 miles from our destination, the Tatton Unit of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
Tatton covers 7,568 acres of prairie-grass land and mesquite woodlands along state Highway 35 between Rockport and Tivoli, about 11 miles north of Copano Bay. It's mostly closed to the public.
Ray Kirkwood and I band mourning doves under the direction of Chad Stinson, refuge biologist. The two years of data we've collected helps Texas Parks and Wildlife assess the status of Texas' dove population.
We start surveying in mid-July and conclude the end of August, banding three days per week, about six hours per day.
Chad supervised establishing 11 trap sites on Tatton, adjacent to pasture roads for easy truck access. Traps are chicken-wire boxes, 2-feet square, 6-inches high, with no bottom. A trapdoor allows us access to the trap.
Birds enter through two funnels. Once inside, it's tough to escape.
The first trap site (T-50), about one-half mile off the highway, has eight traps. We set up, turning traps over, placing them side-by-side. They're left top down to prevent trapping birds during our absence.
T-50 has a group of three, a group of four and a single trap. There are no rules concerning trap layout. Whatever works.
Once arranged, we spread millet seed inside each trap, careful not to spill any outside the traps.
Our capture rates are up and down - it's a dry year. On our day's first run after baiting traps, we stopped 60 feet from T-50 - last year's most productive site, with tree cover for the birds and a nearby stock tank. Birds are around the traps. Two birds are entering a funnel, but never completely enter the trap.
After 10 tense minutes we leave quietly with no birds banded. The rest of the trap sites yield five birds.
A quick run to get coffee and we're ready for our second run.
Approaching T-50, Ray says "Bird in the trap". followed by "No, three birds in the traps". "No, six birds." Turns out we had seven to band.
In our practiced banding routine, we first block the two funnels on each occupied trap, because we've had birds escape while we watched in frustration.
It's my job to grab the laundry bag containing 4x4-inch wood blocks inserted to prevent the birds from escaping. Ray grabs the bird-carry bag and his arm guard.
Birds are generally quiet, content to feed until traps are approached. Then they make an effort to escape. We need to extract them ASAP, preventing injuries.
Ray slowly reaches into a trap to extract a bird, placing it in the carry-sack I'm holding. One by one, we extract the birds.
The last one Ray carries to the truck, and I take the carry-bag. Once in the truck, I pass the bag to him and we close the doors.
For the important part, Ray determines if the bird is a recapture (has a leg band). If not, we apply a leg band, record the number and important information about the bird before releasing it. We process seven birds in nine minutes. Twenty birds were banded that day.
We've been concerned about Tatton's dry water-holes this season. There's been no fresh water on the unit. We've no idea how far doves must have traveled to drink in their constant search for water.
Despite that, at season's end we'd banded more than 200 birds, and fall rains are coming. We hope.
Paul and Mary Meredith are master naturalists. Contact them at paulmary0211@sbcglobal.net.
