[TN-Bird] recaptured waterthrushes

Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Blount County,TN


You again?!?

That may be the words that went through the minds of 2 Louisiana
Waterthrushes Monday.  Each bird was caught in a net set up as part
of a research education program at Tremont.  This is the seventh year
in which ten nets have been placed in the same locations and opened
on eight different days spread over each summer. Our banding station
is part of a continental effort called Monitoring Avian Productivity
and Survivorship (MAPS) which attempts to monitor how long birds life
and how many young they produce.

There is a possibility the birds recognized me - or at least the
situation, because they had been captured before.  This is known
because place a tiny aluminum band on one leg of each bird we catch. 
The band has a unique number on it, which we keep in our records, and
also resides in a continent-wide database in Laurel, Maryland.  Any
banded bird ever caught, or found dead should be reported to this
lab, so we can learn how long it lived and where it traveled.

The first bird, number 1821-18574 was caught at 8:40 am.  Because of
the uniquely-numbered band, we know the bird was caught on June 6,
2005 and was at least in its third year of life then.

The second bird, number 0910-92984 was caught at 11:20 am.  The
numbered band indicates we initially caught it May 21, 2004.  It was
also in at least its third year of life, so that bird is now at least
in it's 5th year of life.  Not bad for a bird that weighs 20.0 grams
and has migrated 1000 miles or more at least eight times.

As of a couple years ago, the longevity record for a Louisiana
Waterthrush was reported to be seven years, eleven months.

These represent the 166th and 167th times this species has been
handled at the Tremont banding station since it's inception in 2000. 
We are not aware of a station that has handled more of this species,
which breeds primarily in the southeastern United States.

To see how many birds have ever been banded in the US, go to
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/homepage/spec.htm#6760

charlie




*******************************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

"To the dull mind all nature is leaden.  To the illuminated mind 
the whole world sparkles with light."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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