Bigfoot Sighted at Beaver Creek Reserve

You read that right.  Bigfoot and his family will be at Beaver Creek Reserve all summer long, as part of the featured book on the Storybook Hiking Trail.  Some say Bigfoot is just a myth. But real or not, one thing is certain; Bigfoot knows his birds of North America (and trees and mammals, but those are different stories).  Follow the Bigfoot family as they explore nature and learn to identify our common feathered friends.

Everything kicks off with the opening Storybook Hiking Trail Program on Friday, June 23rd from 12:15 - 1:30 pm at Wise Nature Center at Beaver Creek Reserve.  Authors and illustrators of Walking with Bigfoot: A Beginner's Field Guide to Birds of North America will be the hosts for this very special edition of the Storybook Hiking Trails program.  Sharen and Mark Mellicker of Nature Lover Books, the authors of the Walking with Bigfoot series will be offering a special reading of their book, alongside other fun activities related to the book.


Preregistration is required. To register for the program click here.

Mark and Sharen Mellicker

Where, oh Where Has Our Little Bird Gone?

Courtesy of the BCR Bird Banders

One of the long-term activities of the Beaver Creek Reserve Citizen Science Center is bird banding. Bird banding is the practice of capturing wild birds, placing a uniquely numbered identification band on their leg, and releasing them. The banding of birds in the United States is controlled under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and requires a U.S. Federal Bird Banding and Marking Permit.

Bird banding data are useful for research, management, and conservation projects. It makes it possible to identify individual birds and allows for studies of bird movements as well as providing information on survival rate, population sizes, reproductive success, and other scientific analysis.

Most of the birds we band are small songbirds captured as they come in to feed at feeding stations at the Reserve or nearby private properties. It is not unusual for us to recapture many of these birds, some multiple times. But we rarely get reports that one of “our birds” was found by someone else away from the place it was originally banded. Encounter rates for waterfowl and gamebirds banded by government authorities to manage hunting can be considerably higher, but it has been estimated that fewer than 1 in 10000 banded songbirds are ever reported to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) after being encountered by someone other than the original bander. This number seems to be increasing slightly since the coming of the internet, but it is still exciting when a bander receives a notice from the BBL that a bird they banded has been found.

Over the years, the BCR banders have gotten such reports for several songbirds we have banded, such as Pine Siskins that were probably killed when they flew into windows, one in California and one in Alberta, Canada; a Mourning Dove shot by a hunter in Luling, Texas; a Purple Finch in Entwistle, Alberta, Canada; two American Goldfinches from Texas; and more from much closer in Wisconsin and other nearby states.

It is always with some degree of excitement that we open the attachment in an email with the subject “Report to bander” from the BBL. Whether it informs us of a Purple Finch recaptured by another bander in Entwistle or a Common Grackle that was killed when it flew into a backyard neighbor’s window in Eau Claire, we are always happy to get feedback on where “our” birds have gone.

This week we received such a “Report to bander” informing us that a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak we banded at the Reserve on May 10, 2012 was found dead on May 4, 2017 in Pineville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. This bird was likely on its return migration from somewhere in Central or South America to Wisconsin or farther north when it perished.

Remote encounters with neotropical species, birds like Rose-breasted Grosbeaks that breed in our area in the summer but return to the tropics for the rest of the year, are almost never reported. Prior to last year we had never gotten a report of any neotropical migrant being encountered more than a few miles from where it was banded. In the tropics, where people are less aware of things like bird banding, someone who might incidentally encounter a bird with a band usually has no idea of what to do with it or has no easy way to report it.

Over the years, in addition to the unique 9-digit identification number, bands have been stamped with various short directions on how to report the information to the BBL. Larger bands contain more information than the smaller bands used on songbirds, but in an age before Google and texting these shorthand directions were often cryptic and unlikely to be followed. Stories are told that one such inscription, “Rept Wash Biol Serv” when bird banding was under a government department known as the Washington Biological Service, was discontinued quickly when it was discovered that it was being interpreted as “Repeat Wash, Boil, and Serve” even by people in the United States. Today, bands are more likely to simply give a 1-800 phone number or an internet address for reporting the band number to the BBL.

What about that report from last year? While the report of a banded Rose-breasted Grosbeak in Louisiana was indeed exciting, it reminded us of the one from last year. You can imagine our surprise and pleasure when the notice we received last year was for one of those neotropical migrants and our longest distance encounter ever reported. Another Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak that had been banded by our off-site banders outside of Eleva in June, 2012, had been shot by hunting children on a farm near Somotillo, Nicaragua on December 26, 2015.

Green arrows on map indicate where other birds banded at Beaver Creek Reserve have also been reported.

 If you find a dead bird, check to see if it is wearing a band. If you see a bird with a band coming to your feeder and you have a digital camera try to take pictures of the band. You may not be able to photograph the entire number but could get enough digits to allow tracing the band. Then report the band number (or portion of the number) on the internet at <www.reportband.gov> or by calling 1-800-327-BAND.